EA Originals to publish more big-budget games as well as small indies

EA Originals boss Jeff Gamon has revealed that the label will publish more big-budget games alongside smaller indie titles.

The division of EA was announced back in 2016 with the aim of supporting independently developed games, debuting with Unravel.

However, it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing, with the brand handing back control of 2021’s Knockout City to its creators, before it was announced this month that the game will shut down in June.

Speaking about new releases such as RPG Wild Hearts, Gamon explained to GamesIndustry.biz that they have “discovered a desire for bigger, better and more innovative titles that complement the EA portfolio.”

“So where we started off with smaller, indie games. We are now graduating to independently-created games of all shapes and sizes and scope and budget,” he expanded.

“We are moving away from niche, and towards bold and audacious. And we are attracting a lot of positive sentiment from press and consumers. We are riding high on the success of It Takes Two, but even the other titles we’ve released in our history have been critically very well received.

“We trade on our reputation,” he continued. “I think EA Originals is unique in the industry in the way that we partner with studios. Everything that we do is in collaboration with the studios we work with.

“We open the doors to all the resources and talent that any of our internal studios have, and channel that into our partner studios. All the while, we shield them from the bigger EA corporation, and make sure to protect their creative freedom.”

Addressing the bigger partnerships, Gamon said that they will still stick to their roots and make smaller games too.

“We are making games of a bigger scale, but we are also still partnering – and we have one or two in the pipeline – on smaller games as well. Those fundamental values still stand. The structure of any deal is completely bespoke,” he added, saying they are looking for games that “move genres on”.