EA: Yay Dead Space, fewer licensed titles!

by Jason Dobson { Oct 27th 2008 at 12:30PM }

Electronic Arts has apparently learned its lesson, realizing that its seemingly endless parade of sequels and spinoffs is far from the best way to march into our hearts. In fact, Glenn Schofield, the general manager at Dead Space developer EA Redwood Shores, tells Variety that more than half of the company's ongoing development efforts will be put towards original games.

EA certainly seems to be heading down this road. Last week's deep space scare-a-thon was the fourth new IP launched by EA this year following Spore, Army of Two, and Boom Blox. Additionally, with Dead Space finding life outside of games even before it was released, Schofield notes that EA "is looking at Dead Space as the model now" for future IP development. Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to thumb through that Mirror's Edge comic one more time before the colorful parkour sim leaps from the edge of uncertainty in November.

[Via Opposable Thumbs]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

5th hot meal @ Oct 27th 2008 12:33PM

Dead Space is a great game and a great new IP. more please, less recycled trash.

ty

WRE @ Oct 27th 2008 4:06PM

I agree. I can't tell enough people how much I am loving Dead Space. I bought it on a whim because I was bored and it's blown my mind all over the ceiling of my apartment.

Replica23 @ Oct 27th 2008 5:13PM

I agree completely. It would appear that EA is moving away from a company interested in making money off games to a game company intent on making money. In other words, the more you give the more you get back.

RanWitScissorz @ Oct 27th 2008 12:35PM

Dead Space was amazing, I hope the 2nd one isn't too far behind!

Haggard @ Oct 27th 2008 12:34PM

You'd think that they make a lot of money from crappy, well-advertised and cheaply produced film tie-ins/Sims expansions though..

Mr Khan @ Oct 27th 2008 12:40PM

one of my house-mates picked up Dead Space, and i quite like it. It's basically a whole-game version of the creepier "gutted ship" scenarios from the various Metroid Primes

I don't really like how it controls, but that's par for the course for horror games (and part of the reason i don't really like them), but its atmospherics can't be beat.

Playing it has given me a strong craving to play through Metroid Prime 3 again, to get to that one gutted ship

Dirty @ Oct 27th 2008 2:26PM

Thats really cool that your parents are into gaming too.

Jake B @ Oct 27th 2008 3:23PM

His parents are getting him a CB radio so that he can talk to other car beds at night.

Markez @ Oct 27th 2008 7:34PM

Breaker, that's W.A. ZERO, Bravo, Foxtrot, Uniform, reapeat, WA0BFU, come in Carbed, over.

Markez @ Oct 27th 2008 12:41PM

Realize that spinoffs aren't the best way to go??? BAH, flimshaw. I think we should be expecting a Deadspace Sims soon, where you can pal around with necromorphs and decorate the spaceship.

Nice to see they mentioned Boom Blox, that game was great.

Twokinds @ Oct 27th 2008 1:36PM

Shhhh, don't give them any ideas!

edgore @ Oct 27th 2008 12:45PM

Interestingly, this was the model that originally allowed EA to get big enough to start making stupid decisions about licensed games, spin-offs and shovel-crap.

Where is my Hard Hat Mac sequel????

xFenixKnightx @ Oct 27th 2008 12:47PM

AAA all the way!

This game was gory as fudge, and I loved every minute of it! It makes Gears look like if its Rated E for everyone.

J.Goodwin @ Oct 27th 2008 12:48PM

NFL license no longer exclusive to EA, confirmed :D

sk8monroe81 @ Oct 27th 2008 1:53PM

madden selling fewer and fewer copies every year...
confirmed.

mrlogical @ Oct 27th 2008 12:49PM

Should be *fewer* licensed titles.
/grammar-police

arrrgh @ Oct 27th 2008 12:51PM

when are they going to learn that it's not about new IPS

it's about making a GOOD GAME and not fucking it up like EA has been known for

Dirty @ Oct 27th 2008 1:55PM

I really think that when you have a new IP there is more room for innovation, because your not using a formula your making one.

I also think that there is more pressure on the team to make it polished because it has to prove its IP. With licensed games and sequels sales tend to be better just because there is a fanbase and the consumer is already aware of the product.

This new IP trend is a win win.

sinergy @ Oct 27th 2008 1:10PM

I'll reiterate what's already been said. EA, give us more games like Dead Space. And get rid of that DRM bullshiat.

Slaziman @ Oct 27th 2008 1:17PM

Their "DRM shit" works in preventing piracy to a degree, if you wanna be mad at someone it's the pirates.

Vidikron @ Oct 27th 2008 1:18PM

Exactly. I like the direction EA is going with their games now, so if we can just convince them to get rid of the ridiculous DRM on the PC side of things then they can really do wonders for their image. As it now, the good being done by their new IPs is being tarnished by their stupid PC DRM.

Vidikron @ Oct 27th 2008 1:22PM

@Slaziman

It doesn't do a damn thing to reduce piracy. Groups crack these things right away so the people downloading these games never even see the DRM. So the pirates just download the games the same as always. The DRM just affects the legit customers buying the games. They are the ones operating under the restraints of the DRM and that have the SecuROM malware infesting their PCs, not the pirates.

Tramd @ Oct 27th 2008 1:23PM

Hi, i'm a pirate. Whats this DRM stuff you're talking about? I don't believe i've ever come into contact with it :D

yarr

RanWitScissorz @ Oct 27th 2008 1:27PM

@ Vidikron

The same can be said for door locks. If it wasn't for thieves we wouldn't need door locks. Because of door locks it takes all of us longer to get through doors. Even with door locks, thieves still get past them if they want to. So do we blame the thieves or the manufacturer's of doors?

Slaziman @ Oct 27th 2008 1:33PM

You sure? I'm a pirate and it took more than a week for a Dead Space crack to appear. So much for your "right away". Just with that delay, they probably prevented plenty of piracy. I nearly budged and bought it, nearly!

Tramd @ Oct 27th 2008 1:35PM

slaziman isn't a true pirate >.> we dont buy games. A week to save $60? sounds pretty nice to me.

Shagittarius @ Oct 27th 2008 1:58PM

Please to enjoy your zombie machines downloading teh warez.

Anam @ Oct 27th 2008 2:01PM

Both sides of this argument need to stop exaggerating.

First, can people (especially EA) please stop using the analogy of the door lock? It requires actual skill, effort and/or tools to pick the lock of a door. The same could be said for DRM except that it only has to be picked *once* for the entire internet to have access to it, so it's really not that comparable.

Second, Slaziman merely said that it prevent piracy "to a degree." Regardless of whether you agree with him about whether it's the pirates or companies that we need to be mad at (why not both?), I'm sure we can all agree that DRM does stop at least a handful of piracy by stopping the old borrow-your-friend's-disc-and-make-a-copy routine.

Tramd @ Oct 27th 2008 2:10PM

Shagi

you understand nothing about the scene, please dont comment unless you do.

Vidikron @ Oct 27th 2008 2:21PM

"The same can be said for door locks. If it wasn't for thieves we wouldn't need door locks. Because of door locks it takes all of us longer to get through doors. Even with door locks, thieves still get past them if they want to. So do we blame the thieves or the manufacturer's of doors?"

That's a horrible comparison. First off, people are much more more bold about stealing stuff on the internet than they are in real life. It's easy to download something, but it takes a certain amount of boldness and/or stupidity to break into a building where you might get yourself shot in the face.

Second, the work of defeating the security is accomplished by someone else when talking about piracy. The person downloading isn't the one that has to defeat the DRM. That work is done. So how is that remotely the same as a door lock? You have to do defeat that (and avoid cameras, alarms, armed residents, etc...) yourself if you're going steal something out of a building. All in all it's an absurd comparison.

RanWitScissorz @ Oct 27th 2008 2:29PM

Sure it's an absurd analogy when you break it down to the physical attributes of the metaphor, but if you take it for what it means instead, you should get the point. Security measures are put into protect the owner, sure they do not stop the majority of people that are trying to access something illegally, but they do stop some. As the old saying goes, "Locks are meant to keep honest people honest."

Vidikron @ Oct 27th 2008 2:40PM

"Security measures are put into protect the owner, "

Here's the thing though... the locks on your house, car, etc... protect YOU, the end user. DRM is there to attempt to protect the publisher, and it fails at doing so completely. The legit end user is the one that has to suffer through all kinds of install limitations and crappy malware on their PCs. But you're free to use or not use the locks on your house as you please and you can change them out if you want. In fact, you could completely do away them if you so desired.

I can see where DRM prevents a few people from sharing a game with a friend, but at this point I've got to think they are losing more sales from people pissed off about their DRM schemes than they are gaining through use of their DRM. Simply requiring the DVD to be in the drive is going to stop these people. Anything beyond that is pointless because the people that know how to patch that stuff are likely going to know how to get games on the internet anyway.

Slaziman @ Oct 27th 2008 2:41PM

I guess the internet knows better than the people at EA whose job it is to test the effectiveness of their DRM. You think they don't know that their games get cracked, or that they don't monitor torrent sites? Of course they do, they aren't retarded.

If DRM is around it's because it's working to a certain degree, don't you agree?

@Tramd
It's only 38 euros for me, and a packaged "legit" version holds more value to me than a torrent, that combined with the late crack and slow as hell torrent + extreme boredom at the moment (my only console is the Wii, lol) are almost worth it. Almost.

Vcize @ Oct 27th 2008 2:53PM

If one person picking a door lock meant that all door locks, security cameras, and alarm systems across the entire world were automatically disabled then maybe the door lock analogy would have a little bit of merit.

As it is though, it's pretty much the worst analogy ever.

Jack of No Trades 85 @ Oct 27th 2008 1:21PM

I think EA is heading into the right direction. They are pretty in-tune with gamers compared to other companies. Look at Midway and thier recent Mortal Kombat mess up. If Midway would have paid attention to the fanbase things would have been better.

BTW, Deadspace is an amazing game. I really did love it. oh, and I followed it up with Bioshock :) Man, I was in a bissful mood while playing the two.

Genuis games!

I love being a gamer.

fco. @ Oct 27th 2008 1:26PM

now if they'd only dared with something more "creatively risky"...

Duke @ Oct 27th 2008 1:46PM

Like something...Brutal?

Superstar90 @ Oct 27th 2008 1:40PM

This quote was taken at the NBA Live 09, Madden 09, NHL 09, FIFA 09, UEFA 09 launch party :P

Blazur @ Oct 27th 2008 1:41PM

EA may very well come across in a different light if they keep releasing original blockbuster titles like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. It's so nice to see innovation in the industry, which is drowning in a sea of sequels and rehashed games.

In regards to Dead Space, I enjoyed the hell out of that game. Not sure if I'd recommend the purchase right now, seeing as how it can be beat in roughly 12 hours. But retail price aside, the game was beautifully put together and a wonderful experience all around.

Great job EA Redwood Shores!!