Electronic Arts’ Jeff Gamon on the evolution of EA Originals

Electronic Arts’ major game franchises are well-known: The Sims, Madden NFL, Bioware’s titles, and the series formerly known as FIFA. But in addition to the money makers, it also publishes a range of smaller titles from independent developers under its EA Originals program.

EA Originals features several award-winning titles, most recently Game of the Year It Takes Two from 2021. The upcoming game Wild Hearts, developed by Omega Force, will also be released under the EA Originals label.

GamesBeat recently spoke with Jeff Gamon, CEO of EA Partners, about the label’s origins, what they look for when selecting a partner for EA Originals, and what EA offers to these game developers.

Untangle

The EA Originals program started in the 2010s to support independent developers. The first game to be published under the label was Coldwood Interactive’s Unravel, which was memorably introduced at E3 2015 by creative director Martin Sahlin. According to Gamon, Unravel was the catalyst behind the program’s creation.

“That was the genesis of the Originals programme. Unravel was an opportunity within EA that pretty fundamentally changed us from a publisher of large annual iterations,” said Gamon. “It touched everyone – I mean it was obviously a very touching, touching game. The process of creating that with Martin and Coldwood and then publishing it had a pretty big impact on EA and the people close to it.”

Unravel was a well-known departure point for EA. Reviewing the title for GamesBeat, Jeff Grubb said, “Electronic Arts isn’t known for its cuteness trade. Professional football, military shooters and Star Wars? That’s EA. But a tiny creature made of yarn could change that perception… It show EA the value in smaller, quieter games.”

Gamon said Unravel inspired EA to publish more games like this: “One of the principles of this program was to support more and more of these studios and bring their vision to a global stage, help them develop the best game possible with means and means. facilities they would not normally have access to.”

Finding original voices in games

The next games to be published under the EA Originals banner are Fe, Unravel Two, Sea of ​​Solitude, Rocket Arena, and Lost in Random. It was also the original publisher of Velan Studio’s Knockout City. Some of the label’s most acclaimed titles include Josef Fares’ Hazelight Studios: A Way Out and It Takes Two.

It was then EA EVP Patrick Soderlund who brought Hazelight and Fares to EA Originals after being impressed by the latter’s previous game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Rates revealed in an interview with IGN that even EA was skeptical of A Way Out at first, saying “[Not] even EA thought it would sell, but they still believed in me. I didn’t care. I was like, ‘This is going to happen.’” A Way Out sold 3.5 million copies as of its last report.

Gamon said finding interesting developers like Fares is the goal behind the EA Originals program. “It is fundamental to the way we work together. We are looking for people with a clear, passionate idea and vision. Part of the reason we are attracted to these people like moths to a flame is because of that. It is a fundamental principle for us to protect that and give them the freedom to make those choices.”

Wild hearts

The collaboration with Omega Force, the developer behind the upcoming Wild Hearts, came about when the game was in a very early stage of development. Gamon says there wasn’t much to enjoy when he first saw Wild Hearts, but he was instantly hooked. Omega Force and co-developer Koei Tecmo understood that what EA had to offer went beyond a simple publishing agreement.

Yosuke Hayashi, EVP of Koei Tecmo, said in a statement at the time the game was announced: “The EA team fully embraces our creative independence and has become an invaluable partner, supporting both development and publishing. By adding EA’s global resources to our own, we can introduce a new breed of hunting game to a global player base and expand our reach to global markets.”

In addition to publishing duties, EA also provides its partner studios with access to multiple internal resources such as feedback, insights, and other forms of testing. “It’s not just a publishing relationship,” Gamon said. “We go on these journeys together and bring all the resources to those studios that an internal studio at EA could have access to.”

In a recent interview with GamesBeat, Wild Hearts CEO Takuto Edagawa spoke about how EA helped during the development process: “Throughout the development process, EA regularly hosted large-scale user reviews, where users played the game and provided their feedback. . We received a lot of feedback from a global perspective, which led to many improvements that we were able to make. I think that we have been able to produce a very high-quality product as a result.”

Gamon added that the EA Originals teams share the developers’ passion and enthusiasm for their games: “We support them in every way we can and encourage them to be creative, bold and daring.”

“What we’re really looking for is people who dare to be different — bolder and bolder… There’s a much wider audience for games that challenge convention and do something different. And those are the types of games that I think EA Originals stands for and will champion.”

EA Originals offers a glimpse into what a big company like EA is capable of beyond its core franchises. In the company’s most recent financial report, it noted a marked decline in net bookings, but stated that the said tentpole franchises remained strong. CFO Chris Suh said at the time that EA planned to “focus our investments on our best long-term growth opportunities.”

Since EA Originals titles don’t fall into those franchises, they’re likely a riskier investment. Despite this risk, EA Originals offer the developer a chance to nurture new IP – and many of these unproven titles have paid off commercially and critically. EA’s success depends on choosing the right teams to invest in.