14 DAY TRIAL // Godfather held a lot of promise but ended up being a second hand title on every console imaginable. Imagine the surprise when I saw the statement of Frank Gibeau, the EA Exec for EA Games division hinting that Godfather could be resurrected.
Resurrected is the appropriate word as the game industry has buried the game under a lot of criticism on top of mediocrity accusations. Enough said: Godfather -The Game has been a failure in terms of gameplay and graphics and less in sales as it capitalized on the franchise's name. After losing first place as primary publisher in USA, you might think that an announcement on the revival of one of the games that sent you in the position could be marketably bizarre.
"We make games like Godfather 2, Army of Two, Crysis - a lot of products that appeal to that older customer and it's going to be a key growth strategy inside our group on how to expand across more categories like action, RPG, strategy that appeals to that older gamer. I think we can add more there but it's clearly a growth opportunity for our label." Being such an important exec doesn't really mean you are impervious to slipups or you are really good at leaking information intentionally. However, due to the fact that Godfather has been such a weak game you can't give him the benefit of the doubt, especially when the statement was made in the presence of shareholders. I think there are some unwritten rules on what you can say on a shareholder meeting, like don't mention failure.
No other information has been provided and there is no launch date set. There is now rush to launch it concomitantly with some movie and they hold the franchise's complete rights. I can only hope that Electronic Arts has learned something from Activision's beating and will respond in kind with a quality game.