EA VP Discusses Franchise Funk

The Next Generation gaming site is back, and they've got an interview with Electronic Arts' Marketing VP Frank Gibeau. He addresses some of the general criticisms the company has faced recently and explains how many people like to unfairly single EA out. The article also touches on how Electronic Arts decides what established franchises to purpose when funding a game for development.

“Do we have enough new IP? No. I’d love to have more. I’d love to take more risks and be able to enter new and bigger properties into the market,” he says. “Sometimes franchises get tired and go away and we recognize that. It’s vital to our success going forward to bring in new and fresh ideas, and there are new ideas that our teams are working on that are not yet announced.”

But even a deep-pocketed company like EA has to admit that risks are harder to take, as they become, well, riskier. “We are leading 150-person teams,” Gibeau says. “These [games] are highly complex endeavours. The number of people who can come up with great ideas that will be popular and can be brought to market on time is pretty rare.” EA’s position as behemoth market leader; its throbbing internal studio complex; and its mega-bucket ability to buy in licenses, sports leagues, and much-loved indie developers, has made it the first stop on any big game hunt for the ills of the industry.

For Gibeau, an employee of 10 years standing (straight from college), this is a corruption of the truth. “I can go work for a movie company and make more money,” he says. “But I don’t want to. I’m here to make great games. And that is what we do. [The criticism] is kinda irritating, so we want to get the truth out there.”