Electronic Arts has announced that it is now changing the focus of its indie-centric Originals brand to focus instead on larger projects and blockbuster titles. Jeff Gamon, general manager of EA Partners and responsible for the Originals brand, says in an interview at GamesIndustry.biz that after the success of It Takes Two they are now moving “away from niche, and towards bold and audacious.”:
“We’ve discovered a desire for bigger, better and more innovative titles that complement the EA portfolio. Where we started off with smaller, indie games. We are now graduating to independently created games of all shapes and sizes and scope and budget.”
EA Originals was founded with the guiding purpose of bringing attention to smaller studios, but now it seems that those developers and their more unique projects may be abandoned in favor of profit margins. Gamon continued:
“We trade on our reputation. I think EA Originals is unique in the industry in the way that we partner with studios. We are not just invested from a business sense, but we’re emotionally invested, as well.”
While this is the beginning of a philosophical shift for EA Originals, Gamon seems determined to stick with the core values, so we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the concept.
