Respawn Entertainment, headed by ousted Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, recentlysecured the talentsof Star Wars prequel designer Iain McCaig for a then-mystery title. Speaking with journalists at E3, EA's Frank Gibeau confirmed the longtime rumors that the game will be a “sci-fi oriented shooter,” which the publisher intend to use as competition against series like Halo and Gears of War.
Above: Killzone cried its glowing orange eyes outwhen EAdidn't mention it as a rival
At last year's E3, industry forecaster Michael Pachter suggested that shooting games set in space were thin on the ground (eh?), speculating that this might be a vacuum Respawn's new title could aim to fill (okay, yeah). Pachter's predictionechoed a common sentimentin the guessing-wildly-about-future-games community. After a year of speculation, EA confirmed this: Gibeau told attendants the company would continue to push series like Battlefield and Medal of Honor, but would release titles like Respawn's “where we see opportunistic gaps, either in a release schedule or in a genre standpoint... It allows us to compete with things like Gears and Halo and put them on places in our release calendar where they're not cannibalistic to the core business.”
Do you like this idea? Can the world stand another “Space Marines, in space” series if the pedigree's this good? Years from now, will Microsoft thank EA for helping them sell Halo? Put on your industry speculator hats and let's hear your thoughts.
June 8, 2011
