In January, EA shitcanned that Marvel fighting game they had in development at EA Chicago. Shame for Marvel fans, but que sera, sera and all that. Anyway, here’s what it looked like! Pretty rough code, we know, but you can still get a good idea of the kind of scale they were going for: large, destructible environments, big enough to cram plenty of civilians and destructible stuff into. It’s a great idea, and one another developer should notice, steal then put into a game that doesn’t get, uh, cancelled.
Unreleased ‘Marvel’ Title [SuperiorVersion]
Now that EA Chicago has closed its doors and former general manager of the studio, Kudo Tsunoda, has moved on to Microsoft, what will become of the destruction-filled Marvel fighting game the team had planned? Nothing, according to GameTap, as the parties involved have “jointly agreed to discontinue development of the Marvel titles under the EA Games Label.” That means that the ill-conceived Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects will be the only game to shoulder the burden of the EA-Marvel crossover deal.
Shown only in trailer form, the EA Chicago fighter looked to bring Marvel mainstays Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Captain America and the Hulk together for a next-gen fisticuffs-fest that saw the characters battling amid crowds of bystanders, toppling buildings and generally wreaking havoc. Marvel’s other multi-character title, Marvel Universe Online, has also been the subject of cancellation talks. Maybe Marvel should just stick to movies.
When Electronic Arts shuttered its Chicago-based development studio, the one responsible for titles like Fight Night and Def Jam Icon, EA prez Frank Gibeau chalked it up to an inability to meet standards for “responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability.” Tough words, especially when some of that blame was most likely shouldered by former general manager of the studio, Kudo Tsunoda. Fortunately for Tsunoda, he has a new home, with GameTap reporting today that he’s landed at Microsoft.
Tsunoda, best known for his fighting games, including a licensed Marvel Comics brawler that may have been scrapped, has been supposedly put to work on a popular franchise. A new Gears of War title is said to be his first project. An interesting fit. And by interesting, I mean, you better not screw this up, Kudo, or you’re in big trouble. Oh, and congratulations.
Poor EA Chicago. They go ahead and make the best boxing game series in years, and what do they get? The sack. Not cool. A former staffer has spilled the beans on why he feels the studio was shut down, and it’s all got to do with their other fighting series, Def Jam: I believe we were never given a fair shake. Fight Night was a huge success, [but]Def Jam was another story. The estimates for Def Jam’s sales were extremely unrealistic for the game. Even if it had done well it would have never hit the unrealistic goals and projections that the marketing department made.
Wish I’d have been there when those projections were drawn up. Could have whispered gently in their ear “no, no those numbers are all wrong”. The Closing of EA Chicago: One Employee Speaks Out [1UP] More »
Lots of job-related shenanigans going down at EA right now. People moved, people sacked, it’s all happening. And might not be stopping any time in the near future. According to Develop Magazine, loads of industry types are speculating that, in a continuation of recent cost-cutting measures (which have seen facilities in the UK closed down but staff retained and moved elsewhere), EA will realise that EA LA and Pandemic’s offices are only a few blocks away and smoosh the two into the same building. Nothing official coming out of either EA or Pandemic on this matter, seeing as it’s two parts rumour, one part speculation, but if there was, we’d imagine it’d just be Pandemic, calling top bunk. EA moves to quell job fears [Develop] More »
Last night when I turned on my 360 to play Call of Duty 4 there was an interesting message of the day:
EA Chicago: Infinity Ward is hiring. jobs@infinityward.com
You’ve heard of in-game advertising — but in-game job recruitment? It’s certainly no secret that the guys at Infinity Ward aren’t huge fans of EA. (They once worked on Medal of Honor and then broke away to build the first Call of Duty). Los Angeles is a long ways from Chicago, but for those EA Chicago employees not looking to relocate, Midway has nearly 30 development positions open in its Chicago office.
Thanks for the screen cap, Jon! More »
EA Chicago has gone down for the count. I can exclusively report that EA is closing the studio effective immediately. Word is that EA is working hard to place many of the 150+ employees at its other studios around the world. What does this mean for the future of the Def Jam fighting franchise and the forthcoming Marvel fighting game? I’m still looking into that, but it sure seems like those games won’t be coming anytime soon.
A source has also leaked me with the surprisingly honest memo sent to EA employees from Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games. In it he says:
“Within the EA Games Label, we are committed to running each franchise and facility as a city/state, teams with unique creative identities as well as responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability….Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn’t been able to meet that standard….Closing EA Chicago is the toughest decision I’ve made in my career – one that in no way reflects on the talent and dedication of the people who work there.”
This was no doubt an extremely difficult decision for EA. I was at the Chicago studio this summer to tape an episode of Game Head on the new Marvel fighting game and it was a beautiful facility with very talented developers.
Read the full memo from EA after the jump… More »
