EA On Why Saboteur, Dragon Age Isn't This Year's Dead Space, Mirror's Edge

6 Comments Posted August 11, 2009 - By Patrick Klepek

EA On Why Saboteur, Dragon Age Isn't This Year's Dead Space, Mirror's Edge

Dead Space and Mirror's Edge were poised as massive, blockbuster new franchises for Electronic Arts last year, but while both were mostly critical successes (though Mirror's Edge nicely divided people), neither were the multi-million sellers they'd been pegged as. During the Pacific Crest 11th Annual Technology Leadership Forum, EA CFO Eric Brown was asked a tough question -- are Saboteur and Dragon Age: Origins this year's Dead Space and Mirror's Edge?

"Looking at the two franchises, we have more modest expectations for Saboteur," explained Brown. "It's a version one of that IP, kind of an open world set in circa early 1940s Paris. We've kind of set our expectations accordingly for that title, so that's probably one difference versus where we were, say, 12 months ago."

Such expectations make sense when Saboteur isn't launching until December. With Dragon Age, however, EA is expecting a little more, thanks to BioWare's reputation.

"Dragon Age comes from BioWare, which is one of the highest quality studios in existence and it consistently produces 90 rated or better IP," said Brown. "We think we can count on the quality angle there as well as the gameplay and the content. We think it has as much as 100 hours of gameplay and plus there's an extremely robust PDLC [paid downloadable content] plan to back it up in the months following."

"And also the RPG category has opened up relatively speaking, given some of the title slips that we've learned of over the last several weeks here," he continued. "So, bit different window, slightly different competitive dynamic for the titles. We think that in the case of Dragon Age there's kind of a built in BioWare audience, given their longstanding reputation for quality."

"We think about it, those two titles [Saboteur and Dragon Age], quite a bit differently than the combination of Mirror's Edge and Dead Space last year," concluded Brown.

Tags: PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, Videogames, Xbox 360

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ifonlytobreathe

I'm really hoping that the Saboteur turns out to be good. I've been intrigued by it since day one.

Posted: August 11, 2009 1:25 PM | Reply | Report

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JohnKiller118

Grand Theft Auto but set in Paris and instead of fighting gangs, you're killin' Nazis. Who else reads that and thinks "badass!"
I hope this game kicks ass. And I hope, if it does kick ass, it sells very well.

Posted: August 11, 2009 2:08 PM | Reply | Report

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NakedSnake14

I don't think the Saboteur will sell that well, Dragon Age will sell better, even though I am not going to buy it because the gameplay looks kind of annoying and retarded. So that might be a seller but I don't see saboteur selling more than 1 million units by the end of the year, Dragon Age might sell 3 million units because of PC users. But with games like Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 2, and Mordern Warfare 2 coming out in the fall with these, they are looking at some rough times with these titles.

Posted: August 11, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Report

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Redd75

Me too!

Posted: August 11, 2009 2:11 PM | Reply | Report

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grendal8

the saboteur has the potentail to be a sleeper hit but Dragon Age is going to sell like hot cakes. This game from this developer is what many gamers have been waiting for for a long rime. The game looks solid, has great videos and with bioware ib charge has very little chance of disapointing...now put it out already, and the stilted release date on the ps3 better not be foreshadowing worse dlc.

Posted: August 11, 2009 3:23 PM | Reply | Report

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PkrPlr4LIFE

BioWare is a great studio. I have a lot of faith in Dragon Age. The stories they tell are always so intricate and captivating that I can just replay them over and over again (SW:KOTOR, Mass Effect). However, I don't think that it will sell that well as it hasn't really been advertised and not as much hype as a lot of people I talk to haven't even heard of it yet. I will be buying it though so I myself am very excited about it.

Posted: September 24, 2009 1:50 PM | Reply | Report

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