EA Reportedly Cancelled Mirror's Edge Sequel

[Logan Westbrook]

EA Reportedly Cancelled Mirror's Edge Sequel

Everyone working on the sequel has been reassigned to other projects, says report.

It doesn't look like the first person Parkour game, Mirror's Edge [http://www.amazon.com/Mirrors-Edge-Xbox-360/dp/B00149PCAO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297691892&sr=8-1] will be getting a sequel, or at least, not any time soon. According to a report by the blogger "Vikachu," on the Swedish site, Press2Play.tv [http://press2play.tv/rekommenderat/10/glom-drommarna-om-mirrors-edge-2], EA rejected DICE's pitch for Mirror's Edge 2, and the entire project has ground to a halt.

According to Vikachu, EA DICE boss Patrick Söderlund said that Mirror's Edge was a franchise that was close to his heart, but as much as he might want to make a sequel, it ultimately came down to money, and the game hadn't sold very well. He said that the project had "stalled," and that the people working on it had been reassigned to other games. Presumably, these other games are things like Battlefield 3, as DICE recently announced [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107521-DICE-Officially-Cancels-BF1943-and-Bad-Company-2-Onslaught-for-PC] that it was cancelling work on Battlefield 1943 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2's Onslaught mode on the PC in order to focus on the game. Vikachu's wrote about Mirror's Edge 2 in December, but it seems that no one stumbled across the details until now.

Interestingly though, a report for a different Swedish site, Aftonbladet [http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/spela/article8385973.ab], made it sound like there was every possibility of more Mirror's Edge. In this interview, Söderlund said that EA was very keen to make a sequel, as Faith - Mirror's Edge's protagonist - was an iconic character; one of the few that EA had. He did acknowledge that the first person perspective in Mirror's Edge made it much harder to get the game right, but added that EA absolutely felt that it was a franchise worth continuing with.

It's quite a difference in tone, but the reports don't have to be contradictory. It's entirely possible that EA thinks that Mirror's Edge is a brand worth developing, but has put it on hold for the time being. Unfortunately, EA is yet to either confirm or deny Vikachu's claims, just saying that it won't comment on rumor or speculation.

Source: via Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-14-report-ea-rejects-mirrors-edge-2-pitch]


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[Baneat]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Game was amazing and I was really looking forward to a sequel. I loved everything about it, the controls, the squeaky-clean-sinister setting..

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I'd hate to see it die. It might not have been worth full price, but definitely worth the $20 I paid for it.

 

[Trucken]

I honestly wouldn't trust anything said by Aftonbladet. It prints rumors and half-truths as facts, sometimes even outright lies.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Makes perfect sence, it's not like they are going to lose the IP rights to mirror's edge anytime soon.

Hope it gets a sequel as it was not a half bad game

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

Oh come on, what kind of sales do you need to be satisfied, EA? Mirror's Edge sold close to 3.5-4 million copies on all platforms! Does that not warrant a sequel?

 

[Jet_02]

I loved the first one.

Sadface.

 

[Prometherion]

What a shame, mirrors edge had potential.

It would have done well as a sequel if they addressed some of the games flaws and avoided stupid gun fights and retina raping light plumes.

 

[fenderstrat]

oh god, i wanted a sequel so bad... damn!

 

[Baneat]

I honestly wouldn't trust anything said by Aftonbladet. It prints rumors and half-truths as facts, sometimes even outright lies.

Can you follow up on this? This is one of my top five games evar, and it'd be good to throw doubt on the claim that it's dead.

 

[Jazoni89]

I'm nearly in tears.

Now that's a game that truly deserved a sequel, but no... we are Ea, we are going to keep pumping more gritty war shooters, like there is enough of those.

It's official folks... Originality in Video games is dead.


On another note i've checked my playfire account, and 25 of my friends out of 44 own Mirror's edge (the only games that mirrors edge have not bettered is bioshock with 28, Gta 4 with 39, little big planet with 39, and red dead redemption with 28). So all that "its not selling" bullshit is wrong.

For all those people who didn't give Mirrors edge a chance, Screw you. You have just destroyed any hope of a sequel to one of the most original games that has come out in the past five years, i hope you feel happy about yourself.

Even if you didn't really like the game, its the principle that counts like what yahtzee said about the game.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

[chuck heston voice]Damn you! Daaaaaaaamn you! You blew it all up![/chuck heston voice]

I'm hoping these rumours are wrong. Though I wouldn't put Mirror's Edge near the top of any list of "best or favourite games" it was fun, interesting, challenging, and above all different. I'd love to see a sequel that fixes the niggling problems that kept the first game down to "great" and thereby let the series attain its potential for "excellent".

Solemn promise, EA: if you make Mirror's Edge 2, I will preorder it. You have at least one guaranteed first-day sale here... and I'm not the sort to do a lot of pre-ordering.

-- Steve

 

[Corkydog]

Loved that game. Luckily, in this business, spiritual sequels are not uncommon. Some developer will look at Mirror's Edge, think "Got potential", and we all get to jump around a city again.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

Such a shame, I was most looking forward to a sequel. I completed the first game half a dozen times and never got bored of it. It wasn't the most perfect game, it had flaws, but it also had alot of potential to be a great and innovative franchise.

I hope this cancellation is just temporary though.

 

[Thyunda]

I liked the look of Mirror's Edge, but the stuff I heard about it was far from good. Which was a shame...the demo I played was fun.
My only problem with this article...Faith? Iconic? No, she's not. Daleks are iconic. Big Daddies are iconic. Master Chief is undeniably iconic. Faith? Present me with a picture of her, I'd only know her because her face is plastered on the front of the box. I wouldn't even know her name. If you talk about Master Chief to someone, they'd know you were on about Halo. Or the Navy. If you talked about Faith to someone, you would have to end the introduction with 'That broad from Mirror's Edge. So, sorry, Swedish magazine, not iconic.


-I just looked back up to check that I'm not ranting about something I thought I saw, and amusingly, even the article had to clarify who Faith was. She's such an iconic character that even an article about Mirror's Edge had to clarify who she was.

 

[comadorcrack]

Genuinely saddening. Mirrors Edge was a very promising game with a few hiccups. It's really a shame that we may not see the idea built and improved upon

 

[Retardinator]

*gasp!*
NO!!!

Let's see. They left a game with a unique art style and relatively innovative gameplay for Shooty McShooterson Online Graybrownathon : Revenge of the 12 year old basement dweller.

Damn you, public opinion! Damn you to hell!

 

[DonJavo]

If this rumor just means that EA is dedicating resources to other games they know will sell well for the time being, and thus generate revenue and additional discretionary funds, with the prospects of returning to Mirror's Edge, that's fine, but if it means that the possible sequel is dead, that's not fine.

Mirror's Edge was a really cool game that was different and had a lot of ambition. The setting was fun the FPS platforming was well executed save for some of the blind jump moment(always a pain to fail them), also the shooting was stiff and clunky, and the hand to hand could of been more polished. These are things a good sequel could address, improve upon, and take the game further than before in ambition and scale (not open world per say, but bigger story, tighter levels with some awesome acrobatic stills being thrown down.)

So, my hope is that EA sees that it has a bit too much on its plate right now and wants to make sure that each of its projects gets the attention needed to make great games. The last thing we want, as the consumer, is having EA trying to please us but coming out with a bunch of half baked products.