EA Talks Risks

EA UK boss Keith Ramsdale talks about risks and industry growth.

Keith Ramsdale, head of EA' s UK branch, has spoken about the importance of taking a chance on new IPs to enable the industry to grow.

"I think there is an inherent risk in new IP. There always has been. But there's risk in iterating and not innovating ... Economically it may be harder for smaller developers to do so without the backing of a large publisher, maybe. But no, I think in a creative industry new IP and risk taking is a fundamental part of the industry growing."

I imagine that some of you, ok, most of you, are scoffing at the idea of EA being innovators, but let us not forget that they released two new high-profile IPs last year, suggesting a change in EA's corporate culture. When asked about the performance of Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, Ramsdale looked at the big picture:

"We give ourselves high expectations. So when you don't hit those high expectations of course there's an element of disappointment. But when you step back and look at actual sell through, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space performed well. They definitely set themselves up as franchises we think we can iterate on. If we felt there wasn't another game we wouldn't be doing them."

Not that much of a change then.

Source: VideoGamer