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Speaking to VideoGamer.com during the recent Shine Week in London, EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale said that in order for the industry to keep growing publishers and developers are going to have to continue to take risks by investing in new ideas.
“I think there is an inherent risk in new IP. There always has been,” said Ramsdale. “But there’s risk in iterating and not innovating. You are going to see publishers and developers take risks. You have to for this industry to be creative and grow. Does that change? Economically it may be harder for smaller developers to do so without the backing of a large publisher, maybe. But no, I think in a creative industry new IP and risk taking is a fundamental part of the industry growing.”
Asked about the sales performance of EA’s new IP of 2008, Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space, Ramsdale explained that you need to step back and look at the bigger picture.
“It’s all about expectations,” he said. “Did a game sell against its expectations, above or below? We give ourselves high expectations. So when you don’t hit those high expectations of course there’s an element of disappointment. But when you step back and look at actual sell through, Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space performed well. They definitely set themselves up as franchises we think we can iterate on. If we felt there wasn’t another game we wouldn’t be doing them.”
EA confirmed to VideoGamer.com at E3 last month that a small team at DICE has begun work on a Mirror’s Edge sequel, though there’s currently no word on a Dead Space sequel – the on-rails shooter, Dead Space: Extraction, will be released for Wii in October.
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