EA Confirms Cancelation of Steven Spielberg's LMNO

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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EA Confirms Cancelation of Steven Spielberg's LMNO



The well-known director of E.T. and Indiana Jones might be having trouble putting his next videogame together.

Three years ago, director Steven Spielberg and EA poor sales [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/74660-Spielberg-EA-Offer-Details-of-Games-in-Development]. After a follow-up called Boom Blox Bash Party, Spielberg was said to still have a title codenamed LMNO in development, but it's now been confirmed canceled.

LMNO may have been in development hell for quite some time, with rumors [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87159-Secret-Spielberg-Project-Hit-Hard-By-EA-Layoffs] saying it was scrapped in 2008, but EA insisting it was still working on the title. However, EA told Joystiq today: "While EA maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg, we ceased development of LMNO."

EA didn't say if another title was in the works with Spielberg, but did re-emphasize that it was still working with the director while robotically saying: "EA continually monitors development resources and adjusts resources as appropriate. No new title announcements." Spielberg could be working on the next Boom Blox, or he could have left EA in his expensive car's exhaust fumes years ago.

LMNO was once described as a "contemporary action-packed adventure," but few other details were given. The recent confirmation of its death came about due to localization company 8-4's podcast [http://8-4.jp/blog/?p=94&lang=en], where former LMNO artist Jake Kazdal explained what happened to it. "I'm sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but [LMNO] didn't end up ever taking off," Kazdal said. "There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics."

If there were politics at work here, I would have liked to see the heated internal arguments with executives and Spielberg angrily using "LMNO" in a sentence. I'm not sure that can be done with a straight face.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/11/report-rez-2-prototype-was-in-the-works-project-lmno-canned/]

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sunburst

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Mar 19, 2010
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Krion_Vark said:
Korten12 said:
what exactly was LMNO?
The fourth unannounced game of Spielberg's after ABCD, EFGH, and IJK.
I see what you did there.

That's too bad. Boom Blox was a lot of fun and I'd like to see what else Mr. Spielberg could come up with. I guess we can only hope that the other titles that politic'd LMNO out of existence turn out worthwhile. And now Spielberg can get back to producing bad movies!
 

SelectivelyEvil13

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Jul 28, 2010
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Well, that's a shame I suppose. I wonder if adjunct ports for the psn and XBL would possibly have helped garner more interest? It sounded as though Spielberg made a unique game that, funny enough, did not try to emulate a movie!
s0m3th1ng said:
From the screenshot it looks like Jenga mixed with explosives.
Hmmm, that might make for an interesting real life board game.[footnote]WARNING: Ages 18+ Do not place explosives in or near bodily orifices and limbs. Shrapnel screen must be used at all times by user to avoid accidental impalement, blinding, or burns from Jenga block debris. We hold no accountability for the disregard of the recommended safety protocol recommended in the 543 page manual packaged with every 'Jenga: Finger Goes Boom Boom! Edition' box set.[/footnote]
 

Delock

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Mar 4, 2009
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...Ok, that's a bit more like the EA I know, but it still was a game that was in dev hell, so you're still not committing evil. I'm still watching you though. I know your the same company on the inside!

(EA is still evil... right? I mean, it's not just they've finally decided Activision has overtaken them and decided to go the opposit direction. That couldn't happen... could it?)
 

kibayasu

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Jan 3, 2008
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I would suggest to Spielberg that unless he works directly for Nintendo to not release games on the Wii.
 

Lukeje

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Feb 6, 2008
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s0m3th1ng said:
From the screenshot it looks like Jenga mixed with explosives.
That's Boom Blox.

...and I am also curious as to what kind of game LMNO was planned to be.
 

More Fun To Compute

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Nov 18, 2008
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Dead Space might fit the profile of the game that shit on this game's prospects. This Spielberg game was headed by Doug Church who created System Shock amongst other things and Dead Space was basically a super simplified and "modernised" version of System Shock.
 

Headwuend

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Oct 27, 2008
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My guess? Mr Spielberg jumped on the bandwagon of lovestruck Kinect fanboys; either he therefore completely neglected LMNO or ruined it with features based on Kinect. :>

You know, if it weren't for the "we wanted to do some sort of action-adventure but somehow EA was already making some that kicked significantly more ass."