Electronic Arts Needs to Balance Great Games with Sales

The leader of the EA Games label at publisher Electronic Arts has said that his company needs to create a system where it can balance the quality of the video games it publishes with the commercial success that they achieve in the long term.

Speaking to Develop as part of a bigger interview, Frank Gibeau, who is the president of the EA division, has stated, “Game makers, the really good ones, they want to make great games but they also want to make blockbusters. One of the things they need to do is balance that out – I have the right team to help them. What I learned early on in my career was that, if you’re going to lead a creative team, you have to inspire people. They’re the ones living in the game.”

He added there should be a clear division between making a good game and making it a best seller, adding, “Your job is to come up with the creative vision, mine is to edit and tweak so it’s a bigger commercial opportunity. I’m very clear about that.”

Gibeau was speaking about the balance between success and quality to highlight why Electronic Arts aims to integrate online modes in all the titles that it publishes, seeing that they tend to be more successful than those who lack an online component.

Electronic Arts has in recent years pout out games which were well received by reviewers, with the most important examples being the first Dead Space and Mirror's Edge, but failed to make the impact in terms of sales they were expected to.

At the moment, the company is gearing up to release Dead Space 2, which will include a multiplayer component when it is revealed.

The game will feature the same necromorph fighting mechanics as the first one in a new mysterious space station.