Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Spielberg, Electronics Arts to Make 3 Games

By

Academy Award-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg has signed on to develop three new video games for Electronic Arts in an exclusive, multi-year arrangement for an undisclosed sum. Spielberg with work with EA at the game-maker’s Los Angeles facility to create the concepts, stories, design, and visual style for three new franchise properties.

Electronic Arts will own full rights to the games, and manage their publication and distribution, while Spielberg gets first rights on converting the games to television or film productions.

Recommended Videos

Spielberg himself admitted to being a gamer: “I have been playing EA games for years and have watched them master the interactive format. Having watched the game industry grow from a niche into a major creative force in entertainment, I have a great deal of respect for EA’s understanding of the interactive format. I’m looking forward to working closely with the team in Los Angeles.”

Related

EA, in turn, is aiming to take advantage of game design opportunities presented by new technologies in forthcoming gaming consoles, while at the same time creating immersive, engaging titles, and feels Spielberg is a perfect pick for the job. EA CEO Larry Probst notes, “There is no greater storyteller than Steven Spielberg. In addition to his gift for pleasing movie audiences, he has an innate understanding of games and how to immerse players into a fantastic world of action and characters.” And the director is no stranger to technology, famously developing groundbreaking visuals for 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and pioneering computer-generated imagery in 1993’s Jurassic Park.

Interestingly, Spielberg co-founded Dreamworks SKG more than a decade ago; the film studio originally included an interactive unit which was purchased by Electronic Arts in 2000; that unit is now known as EALA (Electronic Arts Los Angeles) and is where Spielberg will develop these games with EA.

The agreement highlights the continuing merger of Hollywood and the video game industry. For more than a decade Hollywood has increasingly been converting successful video game franchises into films (Final Fantasy,Tomb Raider, and Resident Evil being recent efforts, with Doom and a future film based on Microsoft’s Halo capturing recent media attention), as well as lending its star power to provide voices and act in video games.

Editors’ Recommendations

Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…
The studio behind Pokémon is making a brand new action-adventure game
A ronin stands alone in a forest in Project Bloom concept art.

Game Freak, the developer behind the popular Pokémon series, announced it is working on a new action-adventure game code-named Project Bloom. The game will be published by Private Division, a subsidiary of Take-Two that brought us games like The Outer Worlds, OlliOlli World, and Kerbal Space Program 2.

This is the first time Game Freak has partnered with a North American publisher during the development of one of its games. It has either self-published or worked with companies like Nintendo or Sega in the past. On Private Division's end, this is simply the latest in a long string of publishing deals made with developers like Ori and Blind Forest's Moon Studios and Silent Hill 2 remake's Bloober Team.

Read more
With E3 2023 gone, other gaming events need to step up
e3 2022 online only logo

Despite how inevitable the complete downfall of E3 felt over the past several years, E3 2023’s official cancellation still strings as it’s a significant loss for the game industry. For gamers, press, and developers, the show served multiple purposes that digital livestreams and scattered publisher-specific events don't currently replicate. In lieu of E3’s cancelation this year, and potentially forever, it’s time for other gaming events to step up and help push the video game industry forward.
Why we lost E3
I’m lucky enough to have the experience of attending three E3 shows across 2017, 2018, and 2019 and many publisher-run events focused on specific games or tighter game lineups. In its final years, E3 felt like the perfect middle ground to the gamer-focused PAX and industry-focused GDC, where people from all walks and sides of the video game industry could come together, see what’s coming in the future, and share their love for games.

It also felt more freeing than publisher-run events, as I discovered and experienced games of all sizes that I may not have otherwise and got to meet many people from every angle of the game industry. Apparently, the Entertainment Software Association struggled to convince enough people that this style of expo was important four years after the last physical event.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Entertainment Software Association president Stanley Pierre-Louis blamed E3 2023’s cancellation on the Covid-19 pandemic, “economic headwinds” due to the current recession that impacted marketing budgets, and the fact that “companies are starting to experiment with how to find the right balance between in-person events and digital marketing opportunities.”
The first two are understandable and have impacted a lot of physical events over the past couple of years. Still, the last reason speaks to a bit more worrying of a shift for those looking to network, get attention from the press, get a broader look at the industry’s future, or even pitch a game.
What we lose
Events are a great way for indies to get unexpected and much-needed attention from players and the press; look at the chance encounter that got one of our team’s freelancers hooked on Homeseek at PAX East. Now, indies will have to hope to gain attention at those more indie-focused events like PAX or be cherry-picked to be featured in a more prominent company’s showcasing. There’s also the networking and pitch factor to it.

Read more
Pick up these Nintendo games you can only get on Wii U and 3DS
xenoblade and pokemon picross headline eshop update chronicles x nintendo wii u

The Nintendo Switch has one of the greatest first-party lineups of any Nintendo console. In addition to several outstanding original games, a lot of awesome Wii U games like Super Mario 3D World, Pikmin 3, and Mario Kart 8 finally got all the love they deserved when they were ported to the Switch. Even some 3DS games like Miitopia have made their way to Nintendo Switch. Still, that isn't all-encompassing, so when the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops are discontinued on March 27, we will lose access to some amazing first-party Nintendo games that aren't available elsewhere.
From black sheep in their respective series to new IP that tests out some novel ideas, four Wii U and four 3DS games that are still platform exclusives stuck out the most to us. If you're specifically looking for Nintendo-published games to pick up before the 3DS and Wii U eShops stop allowing the purchase of new games, consider picking up one of these titles.
Xenoblade Chronicles X

Considering the rest of the Xenoblade Chronicles series is on Nintendo Switch, it's very surprising that Xenoblade Chronicles X has not made the jump over yet. This RPG stands as the black sheep of the series, with a more gritty style and tone, mech suits, and a plot about humans who crash land on an alien planet after escaping Earth, which might be why it didn't come over before the trilogy was completed. Xenoblade Chronicles X is a great game in its own right, though, and also makes ample use of the Wii U GamePad for its detailed map and menus. As such, it's a worthwhile Wii U pickup for those who like to play games uniquely tailored to the system and enjoy seeing what the oddball entries in game franchises have to offer. 
Star Fox Zero

Read more