Respawn's EA-published shooter is "sci-fi oriented" and will allow the publisher to "compete with things like Gears and Halo".
That's what EA Games Label president Frank Gibeau revealed in an E3 meeting this morning, going on to confirm that the publisher will "continue to follow our rotation strategy" for its FPS franchises, but "do it in a way that allows us to maximise technology investment".
"In general we're going to continue to follow our rotation strategy of giving studios a full two-year cycle to get a game built and polished to maximum quality, but we're going to do it in a way that allows us to maximise technology investments like Frostbite 2, the online service models that we're doing... we're going to be able to trade team knowledge and increase the quality of the products year in, year out," he said.
"The idea is to have that rotation happen with Battlefield and Medal of Honor and keep it fresh so you don't burn the teams down or over-annualise the product lines.
"Titles like Respawn - and I think the Insomniac title is a little bit more of an action game than a pure shooter - we'll sprinkle those in where we see opportunistic gaps, either in a release schedule or in a genre standpoint."
He added: "Those typically are more sci-fi oriented shooters, where as the Medal of Honor and Battlefield brands are obviously more modern military oriented.
"So it allows us to pick and choose the best of the sci-fi shooters. It allows us to compete with things like Gears and Halo and put them on places in our release calendar where they're not cannibalistic to the core business and that's the essential strategy going forward."
It's been speculated in the past that Respawn - which is headed up by Infinity Ward co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West - is secretly working on a sci-fi shooter.
At last year's E3, analyst Michael Pachter said: "One genre that hasn't been cloned a lot is the space shooter.
"I'm going to make the prediction that ex-Infinity Ward guys, Respawn Entertainment, will make a Halo killer, a game which will take the form of a space shooter."
Comments
21 comments so far...
shiwayb on 8 Jun '11 said:
Gears Is King.
mogel94 on 8 Jun '11 said:
Starting to think whoever are in charge of EA are a bunch of homicidal maniacs, what with all the attempted franchise killings and all. Somebody better arrest them before they decide to make a Mario killer!
Gaseous Snake on 8 Jun '11 said:
Well, with Activision out of the picture, they might actually make a bloody good game. And EA's release schedule sounds pretty well thought out. It's early days still, of course, but the initial prospects for this are pretty good.
gmcb007 on 8 Jun '11 said:
*sigh* WE DO NOT NEED ANOTHER SCI-FI SHOOTER OR ANY SHOOTER FOR THAT MATTER. Christ your a new and fresh studio and im sure you could try and make your own prize unique game.
groble on 8 Jun '11 said:
Thank god they're giving us a 2 year window to get the bad taste of Medal of Honour out of our mouths before they bring us the second course
KMakawa on 8 Jun '11 said:
Firstly, InfinityWard... or Respawn has always been Shooter, its what they do. Similar to how NaughtyDog are Adventure, its what they've always done and do best.
So it'd be obvious for Respawn to do such a thing, and I agree with one of the above posters. Now the creative constraints is off this team, I am sure they will be knocking out a really impressive title. When your creatively challenged in a workspace such as the environment given by Activision, it is easy to get into doing the same thing -- These two guys wanted to turn it up with MW2, yet Activision was 'stick to what worked last time' so they had to.
Now that those overriding decisions are effectively out of it. We can see something special happening with Respawn.
Rocketman on 8 Jun '11 said:
Dissapoined Sci-fi bores the s**t outa me.I was hoping for a real COD and Battlefield killer.
Black Mantis on 8 Jun '11 said:
Looking forward to it. If they can make it as awesome as MW1, it could compete with the aforementioned titles on the action side of things. Not sure they can create a universe as compelling (for me anyway) as Halo's though.
aawells07 on 8 Jun '11 said:
Im fully looking forward to what these guys offer up and believe it will be a great game i wish them nothing but success so much so that Activision hates that they are no longer work for them.
spaced73 on 8 Jun '11 said:
hate sci fi shooters,i like real guns
hi0marc on 8 Jun '11 said:
Spring 2013 it is then. Blimey, thats a long way off.
I cannot see it being before then, unless its late 2012. But thats MoH2 and CoD88 so thats very unoppurtunistic...
DanW on 8 Jun '11 said:
I agree...I hope they can create something as cool as Halo. I really don't want to invest in an XBox but they do have some really good non-PS3 games.
Legend Turtle on 8 Jun '11 said:
It sounds like this could be really good- and I think they are right with the 2year cycle, certainly shorter than that would be over-exposure and likely drop quality despite sounding good on paper.
Also, it does seem a shame when there is a gap then an overload of great games like happened at the end of 2008. I can see why you would want to try to find a good gap given the number of quality shooters around.
Smasher on 8 Jun '11 said:
yea right, good luck with that
gears franchise is done this year anyways
SpandexArmstrong on 9 Jun '11 said:
That pic makes them look like a pair of porn producers lol
julioaragon on 9 Jun '11 said:
theres only been one series of games that has sold more copies than the halo series and gears of war series,which of course has been on only on xbox360 exclusives and thats been call of duty series and those r on both the ps3 and 360 combined,the better have to make this game something special
IcarusAbides on 9 Jun '11 said:
Any chance that with EA's two year development cycle that this could get stalled to debut on the next xbox console when that is released?
Looking forward to it whatever happens but I hope they can move away from the typical space marines theme for sci fi shooters, perhaps space cowboys ala Firefly?
Jensonjet on 9 Jun '11 said:
I'll always be interested in whatever these guys create for the fact they were responsible for the original Modern Warfare. I think they could make a really epic and grand sci fi shooter. If it's treated with the same attention to detail as Modern Warfare was, and has a similar quality of production it could potentially be an amazing game. I just hope West and Zampella have gotten over their fear of co-op campaign!!
Mule107 on 9 Jun '11 said:
Some great comments above, yes Respawn are now free to bring us something amazing and shouldn't be too hard to "kill" Halo as it's been rehashed and tired out for too long. I think a two year rota for teams is a great strategy and sharing team expertise can only be good. Can't wait to see Medal of Honour on Frostbite2.
MrPirtniw on 9 Jun '11 said:
Developers have been trying to 'kill' Halo for the past 10 years... good luck to 'em.
Much prefer sci-fi styled games- I find 'realistic' games beyond dull (Halo 4, Dues Ex 3, Gears, Mass Effect- Yes please)- for that reason I always found CoD a but boring. The last one I bought was CoD 2 but I'll definately be interested to see what they come up with.
KK-Headcharge78 on 9 Jun '11 said:
Gears is prob the only sci-fi shooter I go for (though enjoyed Bulletstorm) and Halo sucks holy ass, either way it's a bad sign when dudes are comparing their games to established ones without so much as a fricking screenshot to show.