Based on an internal memo sent around EA Sports studios, EA is looking to open up a new studio for their EA Sports line while also showing some concern about the losses of key members from the Madden franchise.
EA is planning on opening a new studio in Austin, Texas but are still looking for a good spot that would be both convenient and large enough to develop their games. This new studio's main task would involve the recently planned idea of "persistent" experiences to EA Sports games in regard to both online-related and career mode related stuff.
Also revealed in the memo is the need to focus on a new outlook for the Madden series due to the loss of a few key contributors to the series. The goal is to make a stronger push to keep the remaining staff members critical to the series while offering a lot more promotions to newer people.
The idea behind this move is to both ensure no more critical people leave to competing companies and bring in new perspectives for their Madden series and potentially the other sports series in the EA Sports line.
http://kotaku.com/5816815/internal-m...xpansion-plans
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Quick News Round-Up:
1) Once Xbox 360 exclusive title Limbo will be heading to PSN in the near future based on a leak involving a South Korean ratings board showing the title as part of the upcoming games for the PS3.
2) As a follow-up to yesterday's Sony story, Sony is now one step closer to replacing Stringer as CEO after Hirai was promoted today to Chairman of Sony. The move comes just a day after shareholders made a strong push to replace Stringer due to a 30% drop in stocks and negative image the company gained in recent weeks.
3) Blizzard reveals they are currently working on a new MMO game called Titan that according to them will be "ambitious, awesome, and casual" in comparison to their work on WoW and the upcoming Diablo III game. The game is expected to arrive within the next 1-2 years but not until the current the expansion packs for WoW and work on Diablo III are done.