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- EA Announces Sequel Plans
- Posted 9 months, 3 weeks ago by Veggie Jackson
In a presentation to industry analysts yesterday, EA Games Frank Gibeau announced the continuation of several of their most successful series’. The Burnout and Skate franchises will be seeing “extensions” in the coming fiscal year. Whether this means they will get straight up sequels or some sort of spin-offs is not yet known. Skate, the first game to challenge Tony Hawk for video game skateboarding supremacy, was a commercial and critical success last year, and EA is looking to continue the fight against Activision’s long-standing franchise. Said Gibeau, “Tony Hawk has been the Madden of that category for a very long time, and our performance in this first year of skateboarding has greatly exceeded my expectations," He added, "I know they're going to come back and be competitive, but these are the fights that EA knows how to win."
The annual racing series, Need For Speed, has its newest iteration in development right now, and Gibeau promised a shift away from last year’s NFS: ProStreet and its focus on the legitimate racing scene. The title performed poorly and was not well received by fans. Gibeau cited a shift away from police pursuit and tuner culture as reasons for the title’s failings, and promises a return to the series’ roots.
In addition, Gibeau announced that EA will be taking over publishing duties for Mass Effect from Microsoft, and that the franchise, originally envisioned as a trilogy, would “be a franchise for [EA] for a very long time."
Add these announcements to the recent news of BioWare re-acquiring the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Pandemic Studios (acquired by EA along with Bioware) working on Mercenaries II and a new Lord of the Rings title, as well as EA’s usual slate of titles, and this could be a huge year for EA. Just like pretty much every other year.
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Comments
"I think EA should team up with Comcast and buy the rest of the things they don't already own." -Sean. the next person to comment, is named monopoly. ironic and hilarious? yes.
I gotta give monopoly and sean a high 5 right there for that one.
Hopefully the new Lord of the Rings won't be an RPG again.
I still haven't gotten to play Skate, and every time I see it in the store it's still full price.
I think EA should team up with Comcast and buy the rest of the things they don't already own.