Citing franchises like Batman and Grand Theft Auto as inspirations for his goal, the Swedish executive would like to see Electronic Arts invest in similar Triple-A, big-budget productions that will garner huge sales. According to Söderlund, this plan has already been put into action within certain EA studios, though those games are being kept under wraps for now.
The revelation of EA’s potential new market focus comes after Söderlund reflected on the large hits that business rivals Ubisoft and Take Two have created over the recent years, with each Triple A game either starting or continuing a series of games which have delivered plenty of action and product value. Although EA absolutely dominates in areas like sports, it makes sense that they’d want to cut into other popular markets, too.
The timing of this announcement could provide good indication to what certain studios may be up to, especially regarding the Montreal-based Motive, a studio headed by none other than Jade Raymond. The studio was founded just a few months ago under the Electronic Arts umbrella, and with the studio led by the person responsible for projects like Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell: Blacklist, there’s plenty of action game experience to go around.
Motive is now aiding Visceral Studios in the production of their new Star Wars game, who also brought in some talent that had worked on Uncharted. The studio has kept the game’s development almost completely under wraps, but we expect that Söderlund’s statement about more ‘gigantic action games’ will be reflected in what we see from this game when it enters the spotlight. There are rumors afoot that the Star Wars game will be open world, but neither Patrick or Visceral has commented on that as of yet.
Söderlund also revealed that the company isn’t afraid on splashing the cash into a brand new IP to make this kind of action game happen, either:
He also admitted that the creation of a brand new open-world game was a possibility, but not strictly something they were aiming for. In any event, tt seems like Electronic Arts is already cooking up some grand ideas for large-scale action games, and we hope that its collection of studios can create some truly innovative titles in the process. For a studio known for its annual release schedules, a Triple A title delivering a breath of fresh air would certainly be welcome.
Source: PC Gamer
