EA hires Steven Spielberg

[kleinluka]

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000517063307/

Electronic Arts will be paying Steven Spielberg to “shape the concept, story and visual appearance” of three brand-spanking-new games, according to this morning’s Wall Street Journal. There’s no mention of what game ideas might already be twirling around in Spielberg’s noggin, but the games are probably still a couple years away at this point.

We’re hopeful that this combination of the world’s biggest director and the world’s biggest game publisher will mean three amazing new titles with epic scope and the emotional appeal of some of Spielberg’s better efforts. Could this sort of relationship herald the beginnings of a new bifurcation in the games industry? Spielberg’s name on a game will help EA market the title and will perhaps decrease mainstream player appetites for titles without the name of a top-tier director on the box.

To put it another way, are today’s top games designers about to be shoved to the bargain bin in favor of games designed by carpetbaggers from Hollywood?

[johnm487]

funny, i just read this on msnbc.com.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9690079/

It will be several years before the first of three Spielberg-EA games hits store shelves, Young said.

thats a long wait.

[Kosmo]

Oh well I'm glad that they announced them early, wouldn't want them to come as a suprise :roll:

[Mazy]

Yup, hopefully something good will come out of this overall instead of mediocre games with a cool story.

But man its gotta be cool to get to work with Spielberg

[GrayFox]

But man its gotta be cool to get to work with Spielberg

[JAL]

What does Spielberg know about videogames? I mean he´s 50-> or something... Tbh this sounds like one of EA´s ways of getting more attention to its games.

[Defrag]

Well, look at games like HL2. Story-driven and cinematic games are on the up, and the technology is rapidly developing. We're now at a stage where developers can employ real-time techniques that were only available to movie producers just a year or two back... so I guess part of the video games market colliding with the film market is inevitable. It'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

[Lurker]

What does Spielberg know about videogames? I mean he´s 50-> or something... Tbh this sounds like one of EA´s ways of getting more attention to its games.

Since when was EA about innovative gameplay? As far as I'm concerned, their games are sold by marketing.

[Mazy]

What does Spielberg know about videogames? I mean he´s 50-> or something... Tbh this sounds like one of EA´s ways of getting more attention to its games.

Speilberg is supposed to be quite the gamer. He's also been involved in some game projects in the past such as The Dig.

So this isnt really like hes treading new ground, its just more involved afaik.

[GrayFox]

What does Spielberg know about videogames? I mean he´s 50-> or something... Tbh this sounds like one of EA´s ways of getting more attention to its games.

Actually, a while ago he did some lectures about how games should be in the future (story and character wise). He said it himself that he's very interested in video games and their future.

EDIT: mazzle beat me to it.

[Lee3dee]

Also remeber that The Dig was made by the lucasArts team that brought us these classic games: The Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max: Hit the Road.

I'm sure Spielberg helped in the direction and development. Hopefully, the development team will follow his wisdom. hehe

[Thrik]

It's very easy for people to assume things like "Oh, he's a sixty year old film director, he clearly knows nothing about games and this is all part of Electronic Arts' master plan to destroy the gaming industry". Just do us all a favour and don't bother committing those assumptions to writing.

Anyway, this could be a pretty good move. It's a bit ridiculous to paint every single developer involved with EA with the 'care about nothing but money' brush, and I'm growing increasingly tired of seeing it. Some fantastic games have come from the EA name, and them putting down the funds to give their developers a chance to have better storytelling (even if that doesn't turn out to be the case) can't be a bad thing.

Hopefully we'll see some good stuff coming from this, although it's going to take some very intense collaboration between Spielberg and the game leads to ultimate in a truly inspiring experience. If either party try to take too much creative control then it's going to end up spiraling into a big mess. I'd like to be optimistic, though.

[⌐■_■]

What does Spielberg know about videogames? I mean he´s 50-> or something... Tbh this sounds like one of EA´s ways of getting more attention to its games.

Maybe too, but Steven Spielberg is hired to arrange the 'concept part': the theatre part, so to speak. Not the programming part. Thus I fail to see why age should be a problem.

[Grinwhrl]

very cool

[RD]

it means more focus on graphics and even less on gameplay