What Happened To EA Originals?
When EA Originals was first announced at EA Play 2016 by Patrick Soderlund, EVP of EA studios at the time, it was said the program was about three things.
Bringing unique, gorgeous, innovative and memorable experiences to the world.
Supporting small developers throughout the process of development to marketing and publishing.
Offering small studios a level of security. The profits from these games go to the hands of the studios making them.
Since 2016, EA Originals have brought plenty of memorable indie experiences to mass audiences including Fe, A Way Out, It Takes Two, Lost in Random, Unravel, Unravel 2, and Sea of Solitude.
Joseph Fares, founder of Hazelight, who has worked with EA Originals on both projects including A Way Out and It Takes Two has said that EA makes “zero dollars” on the program. The supposed specifics of the deal was that EA just needed to recoup the expenses and the rest goes to the developer.
However, in recent years, EA has pivoted to including bigger games including Wild Hearts and Immortals of Aveum. EA have said that “We are making games of a bigger scale, but we are also partnering on smaller games as well. The fundamental values still stand. The structure of any deal is bespoke”
It sounds like there is still room for small Indies to get a chance at all the profits, but overall, it sounds like EA is moving away from the three core fundamentals that made the program with games like Wild Hearts and Immortals of Aveum.
When EA posts net revenue of almost 7.4 billion in FY23, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to transition away from the indie initiative that EA Originals was striving to be when it was announced in 2016. It was a great way to shine some light on premium indie titles.
As for what lies ahead for EA Originals, it sounds like EA will be mostly moving away from helping smaller studios gain publicity otherwise thought to be impossible for an indie developer. Personally, I hope that EA sees that they have shown much more success with games like It Takes Two and Unravel than they did with the bigger budget games of late.