14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts seems to be still affected by the rather disappointing sales that Dead Space and Mirror's Edge, two new intellectual properties that were well received by reviewers, registered in the Christmas sales period. But the company believes that it has done the right thing creating these two games and that, when looked at in the long term, they will be judged as being successful.
Patrick Soderlund, who is a senior vice president for EA Games Europe, told Gamasutra that “I think if you analyze games like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge for their lifetime performance, I bet you'll find them to be seen as successful. They're both new IPs; it's hard to break new ground with new IPs, especially in that Q3 window, when you have games like Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 5, and a bunch of other really strong products with a 2, or 3, or 4, or 5 on it”.
Recently, Electronic Arts admitted that the practice of only releasing big games in the period running up to Christmas, when sales tend to be better than in the rest of the year, was wasteful, leading to some titles being buried in the avalanche of releases. It's especially hard for titles that are totally new, like Dead Space or Mirror's Edge, to make an impact. So, this year, Electronic Arts might begin to release important games during summer and in early fall.
Despite the low sales, Electronic Arts is pushing on with the two new franchises. Dead Space is getting a Wii version, which is set to be a prelude to the game released in fall 2008, while there are already rumors regarding Dead Space 2, a proper sequel. DICE has also said that it envisioned Mirror's Edge as a series of games, but it is now rather busy delivering new Battlefield games, like Heroes and 1943.