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Spielberg and Electronic Arts Partner Up 32

Posted by Zonk from the has-to-be-better-than-jurassic-park-III dept.
Ryan O'Rourke writes "Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has partnered with Electronic Arts on a deal to create three new video games. Although the titles and subjects of the new games have not been released, the games have been described as "three new original franchise properties," so they probably will not be based on previous films. The article also mentions that EA will own the intellectual property for the games. The company will develop, publish, and distribute the game franchises worldwide. And Mr. Spielberg will have the right to develop movies based on the games."
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Spielberg and Electronic Arts Partner Up More

Spielberg and Electronic Arts Partner Up

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  • Spielberg collaborated with LucasArts on "The Dig", back 10 years ago. It is interesting that with LucasArts still a meaningful player in the videogame space, Spielberg decided to partner with EA (aren't they working together on Indy 4?)

    • Re:Going back to the well (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It is interesting that with LucasArts still a meaningful player in the videogame space, Spielberg decided to partner with EA

      Probably because Spielberg didn't want to make a StarWars game. I honestly think that's all they do now. From the article, it sounds like Spielberg wants to do something original, a concept completely unfamilar to the modern LucasArts. Shame, their adventure games are some of my favorite video games of all time...

      I still remember that damn turtle skeleton puzzle in The Dig...

      • Probably because Spielberg didn't want to make a StarWars game. I honestly think that's all they do now.

        How a about "Mercenaries?"

      • Spielberg wants to do something original, a concept completely unfamilar to the modern LucasArts

        In stark contrast, Electronic Arts is completely familiar with the concept of something original, making Spielberg's decision obvious.

    • nononon not Indy 2004, Indy 2006, and 2007 and 2008 and 2009 and....

  • Director = game developer? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dividedsky319 ( 907852 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @04:18PM (#13793437)
    Hmm... I find this kind of odd.

    Sure, he can come up with a good story, and direct well... but it's not like his directing expertise will mean he can create a good game.

    I'll be interested to see what he comes up with...

    And... what is it with all these "famous" people who try to break the barriers of what they do? Rappers in movies, moviestars recording cds, etc... and now, directors creating video games.
    • If I recall correctly, Spielberg wrote part of the story in an adventure game called "The Dig" from LucasArts. While not the greatest adventure game ever, I still enjoyed it a lot.

      Don't know if that is relevant at all, TFA doesn't mention which type of game they will be working on (except for the information-free statement "Work has already started on the first of the three projects, which EA says will be a next generation game which appeals to a broad audience.")

    • Re:Director = game developer? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Famous people (in particular famous people with standards) can bring a lot to videogame development. Given that the average Marketing Weasle is far more likely to listen to a famous person than they are to listen to a developer, if a famous person said that the game isn't ready to be released it likely will get the extra time it needs; being that El. Speilbergo seems to have standards, and doesn't seem like an idiot, if the lead developers suggests to him that the game needs more time he will likely help th
    • Hey, they let Kevin Smith write that Daredevil comic book series. It's not a matter of how good the games are. It's a matter of how many copies they can sell with Spielberg's name on the box.

      Smith's 1st Daredevil story was pretty pathetic but issue 1 sold like hotcakes. First it looked like a Spawn ripoff and then the explanation (far too many issues later) was just a lame Scooby Doo type of thing involving Mysterio. Maybe Spielberg will update the Atari 2600 version of ET.
    • Tom Clancy started a gaming company known as Red Storm Entertainment and ended up with the successful Rainbow Six series.

      Sounds like Mr. Speilburg won't get his hands too dirty with the development of the game... sounds like he's more into having the movie rights to the games...
  • I just hope that we will actually be able to play as Schindler!

  • Pinky and the Brain! (Score:5, Funny)

    by steveo777 ( 183629 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @04:29PM (#13793550) Homepage Journal
    We've been waiting for a game that can capture the essence of Pinky and the Brain for ages! Oh, hear our cry Mr. Speilburg and give us a game that we can only play at night. A game that will allow us to almost take over the world in, at the least, 365 ways!

    And if Speilburg won't listen, we'll go find his spanish equivilent, Stephen Speilburgo!

  • fark nailed this with their headline (Score:4, Funny)

    by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Friday October 14, 2005 @04:30PM (#13793554) Homepage
    "Spielberg agrees to team up with EA for three video games. Due up first: ET's BMX 2007"
  • ... Spielberg don't go the L. British/Origin way. Would be a pity. I like most of Spielberg's movies.
  • Formulaic video games coupled with formulaic movies :). Seriously though, having a great story does not a great game make. Most of the time the story is more than adequate - in my experience - it's the gameplay that lets you down, and that is, annoyingly, one of the areas where EA seem to be great at whacking the monkeys to produce lots of libLoadingScreen(), libBloat(), libJitter() as they're all cross platform. (And that's not mentioning the textures and models...)

    (I still want my alien death ray thou
  • What an excellent choice by mister Spielberg. While he might be a great movie director, albeit slightly formulaic from time to time. Im sure the Electronic Arts will be producing original and innovative games based on these film licenses. Its about time someone put an end to the crappy film licenced video games that have been churned out since the days of Ocean and the C64.

    This is fantasic news and im looking forward to seeing the results of this escapade.

    Am i being to subtle for an american audience ?
  • Just yesterday there was the story of how EA destroyed the creativity of Origin [slashdot.org] after merging. Origin was forced to focus on sequels and even recently, EA told shareholders their plan is to release about 20 sequels per year and just 1 original title. Frankly this collaboration doesn't make much sense unless Spielberg actually has some incredible ideas waiting to be realized.
    • My guess is EA is doing this primarily so they can put Spielberg's name on the game package, create licensed titles tied to films, and boost sales. Spielberg has plenty of film projects to do, and might be interested in tossing some creative ideas around, but I wouldn't expect him to have the time to do more than the "executive producer" level of involvement.
  • What, like Dark Angel?

    (psst, mod me funny.)
  • "And Mr. Spielberg will have the right to develop movies based on the games."

    Has anyone in Spielberg entourage told him how popular video game based movie are popular?

    He must frequent the same people as The Rock.
  • Some of the press releases and news stories are tauting this as Spielberg's first foray into videogames, but don't be fooled -- this is not the first game he has collabated on.

    In 1995, Spielberg teamed up with LucasArts to make "The Dig," a graphic adventure game that was well-reviewed but never really caught on (surprisingly, one of LucasArts' only adventure games that didn't see huge success during that time period).

    LucasArts, like EA, was proudly tauting how their game was Steven Spielberg's "first colla
    • It is an excellent game. I just wish that LucasArts had realized, in 1995, no one wants to go through the hassle of DOS to play games. Luckily, they wised up and included a Windows 95 version of The Dig in The LucasArts Archives Vol. 3 [mobygames.com] in 1997.

      Of course, that doesn't matter any more. The open-source ScummVM [scummvm.org] project can play The Dig on most computer systems these days. The only problem that remains is finding the game.

      ...and no, you can't have mine!

  • Finally, an updated directors cut of "ET" the Videogame from the good old Atari days!!!

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