EA Quietly Opens New iPhone Studio

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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EA Quietly Opens New iPhone Studio

iPhone [http://www.ea.com].

EA has had success with iPhone versions of major releases like Touch Arcade [http://www.thesims3.com/] as "a team of twenty-something-year old developers set loose by EA executives, in their words, 'on an island' to develop indie-style simple pick up and play iPhone games."

8lb Gorilla's first effort is Zombies & Me, set during the early stages of a zombie holocaust when the undead are rising and the military is struggling to put them back into the ground, once and for all. Players will enter the fray as Guy, who must protect his grandmother from the zombies by running around outside her house, rounding them up and positioning them under the missiles the army is dropping on the scene.

The game is apparently as simple as it sounds; 8lb Gorilla said play testers were generally able to figure out the game's controls in five to ten seconds and it is reportedly "on par with what you would expect for a 99 cent game." Zombies & Me is due to hit the App Store [http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone/] soon and the studio plans on releasing future games on a "near-monthly basis."

Most interesting in all this is the very quiet approach EA seems to be taking to the iPhone platform, despite its huge potential and EA's natural penchant for bluster. 8lb Gorilla has received virtually zero fanfare and, as far as I've been able to determine through an admittedly-cursory look, has no visible presence on EA's website. The publisher is obviously looking to make a big splash in the iPhone market, but at the same time also appears to be trying to camouflage the effort. Maybe EA recognizes that despite its recent reformation, it's still the Great Satan in the eyes of many people, particularly those with a taste for small, simple - and independent - games.


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Sevre

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Apr 6, 2009
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Thank god! Threads in News Room! Slow News day eh? Oh man, I was going ma-

......EA and the iPhone. Oh no, mobile gaming is finally coming back!
 

WrongSprite

Resident Morrowind Fanboy
Aug 10, 2008
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Huh? Am I the only one who thinks that that looks boring? I reckon I'd play it for about 10 mins max.
 

Faps

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notoriouslynx said:
Am I the only one who thinks the iphone will never be a major handheld video game device? Maybe Apple could make a device specifically for gaming, but right now I don't think the iphone really will be anywhere near a PSP or a DS. But whatever, I guess thats why EA calls it a micro studio and selling games for a dollar. I still think Apple should make a handheld gaming system.
I don't think the aim is to make it a major handheld video game device, selling the games for $1 and making them simple is to aim for people who are bored and messing around on their iPhone and decided, what the heck this looks fun and it's only a buck. Play it for 10-20 minutes on the bus or train to work and once you've got bored of it, buy another one since it's only $1.
 

cobrausn

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Dec 10, 2008
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WrongSprite said:
Huh? Am I the only one who thinks that that looks boring? I reckon I'd play it for about 10 mins max.
Like pretty much all iPhone apps.

notoriouslynx said:
I still think Apple should make a handheld gaming system.
I hope not. We'll get a bunch of pretentious commercials for overpriced games made by underpaid programmers.

...

I guess it wouldn't be too different from the norm.
 

bue519

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notoriouslynx said:
WrongSprite said:
Huh? Am I the only one who thinks that that looks boring? I reckon I'd play it for about 10 mins max.
I agree with you. It looks like a really bad flash game.
It doesn't look like a bad flash, after all it seems to have a good amount of work put into it, it just looks like a boring flash game.
 

WrongSprite

Resident Morrowind Fanboy
Aug 10, 2008
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cobrausn said:
WrongSprite said:
Huh? Am I the only one who thinks that that looks boring? I reckon I'd play it for about 10 mins max.
Like pretty much all iPhone apps.

notoriouslynx said:
I still think Apple should make a handheld gaming system.
I hope not. We'll get a bunch of pretentious commercials for overpriced games made by underpaid programmers.

...

I guess it wouldn't be too different from the norm.
H...have you not seen peggle iphone version?

*shakes*

Thats more than 10 minutes.

I need help...
 

Skreeee

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Jun 5, 2009
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Looks interesting, but I imagine I'd get bored and go back to Bejewled...assuming I wasn't too cheap to shell out money for an iphone in the first place.