EA realises importance of innovation

EA Montreal's Alain Tascan says that new original games are needed if the publisher is to stay number one.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Tascan has admitted that the publisher needs to bring out new games using new intellectual properties, and will look to cultivate this area of its business in the future.

Tascan hit the headlines late last year when he criticised Epic Games' Gears of War for lacking innovation, and he admits that Army of Two - EA's first new IP for next-gen systems - will have to be good, or else he faces an egg on his face situation.

It's these new titles based on new original ideas that Tascan and EA now see as the key to maintaining their position as the leading publisher of video games.

"EA has realised that what we need now to stay number one and keep that edge is really to focus on creating new IP," Tascan told Gamasutra. "I mean, we just did Superman Returns and all the sports, but we feel that we are now ready to take big bets on new IP, and not bet the farm on the established titles. And we think this is something that people are going to react well to, because EA is not known for this."

Tascan has taken a lot of flack in the past for some of his comments and he believes that EA can deliver fresh new ideas, noting that "we [EA] want to prove that as a company we can do it."