EA’s Originals recipe EA is changing. It’s back on Steam and has just announced three new EA Originals to join its third-party publishing lineup. Seth Barton talks to Steve Pointon about what the biggest of publishers can offer even the smallest of developers.
W Above: Steve Pointon, SVP 3rd Party Content & Development at Electronic Arts
hen EA introduced Unravel to the world back at E3 2015 it was a big moment. Yes, the game looked great, the developer was adorably nervous, and he’d brought a little friend. But it was more than that, EA was a thirdparty publisher again, it was going to pick and champion other people’s games, it was going to do something more than ‘just’ huge licensed franchises. And then… not so much. EA Originals was officially named a year later, and the programme has since released a handful of (admittedly incredible) indie games in the intervening years, but for a company with its vast resources, it feels as though it maybe could have done more. And at EA Play 2020 it started to look like it is, with three new Originals announced, all backed up by the publisher’s return to Steam. So we thought it was a great time to talk to Steve Pointon, SVP 3rd Party Content & Development at Electronic Arts, or to put it more simply the man in charge of EA Originals, in order to see whether EA is the right home for your next title. Given EA’s vast resources, compared to indie budgets, how do you choose how many games to back/publish? The EA Partners division proactively looks for passionate, talented, and highly creative independent studios with amazingly original concepts that are fun to play and push the boundaries of games. At EA Play Live last week, we gave first looks at three new games that will be published under the EA Originals label – with more games to come soon. We’re not looking for a particular number, or a particular genre of game. We’re interested in the best and boldest studios, and partnering with the right people, to support them in bringing their games to the scale of audience they deserve. This could be larger independent studios who have a proven track-record, or
it might be the ‘undiscovered band’ who EA can help break-out to become the next Respawn. This truly is about supporting independent studios with the strength of EA and bringing more great games to players, wherever they choose to play. Speaking of budgets, how big a game would EA finance through this scheme? It varies widely but is less about budget than it is the experiences we want to deliver for players. Over the past few years the EA Partners division has partnered with a variety of studios at different phases of production, maturity, and size. From start-ups like Hazelight to more established teams such as Final Strike Games. With every partnership we start, we intend to continue and build upon, and we want each of these studios’ games to be big hits. Of course, EA Partners was with Respawn from the very beginning, and the strength and success of that partnership really brought that incredible studio into the EA family. Really our focus is the vision of the studio – and how we can support that studio to bring it to life. Despite the initiative, EA is still seen as ‘those big corporate guys’ by most indies, how do you then persuade them that it’s the right brand for their game? The EA Originals label has been the best, most visible way to dispel that myth, to support independent studios of all sizes, and bring highly creative games to market with a very strong track record of success. We are pleased to be partnering on second games with both Hazelight and Zoink, as we did with Coldwood and Respawn. We have announced that we will make two games with Final Strike Games and will be talking more about Velan later this year. We are committed to long term partnerships with these amazing studios, and are looking forward to watching
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