Report: EA Partners - Publishers of The Orange Box, Bulletstorm and Rock Band - to Close

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Lee Bradley

EA Partners is to shut down, as part of the publisher’s continued downsizing, according to the latest reports.

EA Partners is the wing of the company that publishes titles made by third-party developers. And while the project obviously wasn’t viable for EA any longer, it has had its fair share of hits down the years.

Titles like Rock Band, Crysis and The Orange Box were published by EA Partners. Unfortunately, however, so were the likes of Brutal Legend, Shadows of the Damned, Syndicate and Bulletstorm - all titles that failed to perform at retail.

There are two more remaining properties on the release slate for EA Partners; Fuse and Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming shooter. According to reports, these projects will continue unaffected.

The closure of EA Partners comes following the departure of CEO John Riccitiello, since when there have been a number of layoffs. Going into the next generation, EA is clearly narrowing its focus.

EA Partners was co-founded in 1997 and was initially known as known as EA Distribution. The idea was to attract smaller, independent developers - who would be reluctant to get into a standard publishing deal.

Unfortunately, however, it seems that EA Partners is just the latest victim of a console industry that is increasingly squeezing out all but the biggest, AAA releases.

[via GI.biz]

Comments
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  • Give it a couple of years and the only games released will be COD and Battlefield. other than that we'll have to make do with Facebook games.
  • Didn't EA Partners publish Alice: Madness Returns too? Or am I thinking of something else? This was one of EA's more positive moves, so it's a shame to see it go. This is only going to make it harder to get original games out on Home Consoles, something we desperately need right now
  • Goodbye, Lee's Big Boner.
  • @1 And Halo. Unless 343 continues to screw up the series.
  • Slowly being pushed towards the PC again at least on PC there are still small studios that are getting innovative and are not under EA or MS thumb.
  • Well great, guess there won't be an orange box 2 then... :/ always hoped that there would be then HL3 or episode 3 comes out, bundled with a few other things. @4, they delivered their game and gave one of the better stories in the games so far. The multiplayer is looking it's way a little though, they're trying to speed it up too much, I don't wanna play CoD in space when I play halo online :/
  • Does this mean there is a chance of server closures for The Orange Box??
  • Wow this sucks. Ive got over 1000 songs for Rockband and was really hoping they would release a fourth title. I know guitar games were a dime a dozen but I liked them. :(
  • Folks, this isn't to say that there won't be another Rock Band, Bulletstorm, Half Life, etc. The developers still exist, it just means that EA won't be publishing them, that's all. As for servers, pined, I was under the impression that Valve owned and ran the servers. I may be wrong though.
  • I don't want EA to touch anymore SUDA51 games anyways. Bulletstorm needs to not fall into Activision's hands and we'll be good. Ubisoft would be fine.
  • Shame about this. I think some of EAs best game came through this.
  • @8, EA and Harmonoix's relationship ended a couple of years ago. If I'm not mistaken Rock Band 3 was the last game they released together. Since then Harmonix has released several games, including Rock Band Bitz. They still might do a Rock Band 4, but it probably wont be until next gen.
  • @12 They have said they aren't working on one but lets hope there is a new one down the line :), but you are right.. Mad Catz took over for publishing RB3 a few years ago..
  • interesting, why7 do i say this if they get rid of thrid party devs then the exclusive deal there rumoured to have with microsoft next xbox could actually turn out to be ea becoming an exclusive publisher for the console
  • @9, well that's good at least.
  • fuse and respawn's upcoming games will be untouched. ironically shooters, the only thing that sells apparently.
  • This is kinda stupid of them to do. Some of the best EA published titles were from EA Partners. Don't see why they don't just pick projects more carefully instead of closing it.
  • BrĂ¼tal Legend and Shadows of the Dammed were both awesome games!
  • If only EA would have invested more attention in developing more lower-budgeted titles with good developer, they might not have had to this. But then again, it is EA, so this was inevitable.
  • It's a shame to see development costs end up having to close down a portion of it's studios when a title underperforms. Helpfully we still see creative and fun titles being made in the future across the board, not just from EA
  • and what about dice for battlefield 4?
  • Cheers Webb. I was recently looking into getting The Orange Box that's all. I just didn't want to not be obtain 100% in it due to server issues.
  • #21 BF 4 will be fine. Don't worry it is published by EA. Not other group of published in EA is EA Partners so it is closed down. Different group but huge and big group for published is EA. So no, BF4 will be fine. :)
  • I guess the developers gave away to much content in The Orange Box for EA's liking, that game rocked, massive content and gameplay. Hell I still play it on my PC sometimes. Fuck EA !!!!!
  • The games aren't underperforming, the development costs are out of control. It's ridiculous that the sales numbers of titles like Syndicate and Tomb Raider are regarded as "less than spectacular" and have basically caused everyone to think the "triple A" franchises are all that is going to sell.
  • This is what happens when the next generation of gamers are introduced to nothing but shooters. It is hard nowadays to find one 12-17 year old kid who isn't obsessed with COD. All of us old timers remember games as original, story driven, deep, rich experiences. Now it's just lemmings lining up to hold the R trigger down for 12 hours a day.
  • Obviously not all titles are going to be AAA. The problem is, the publishers price all games as if they are.
  • EA: destroying more lives.
  • @2 They did, but since EA actually didn't want to do a sequel, so the developer, Spicy Horse, is doing a kickstarter for Alice: Otherland in June. Watch for it if you're interested.
  • @1 not true, just everything will be developed AND produced by "indie developers" and there will be different sources of funding other than publishers (this crowd sourcing thing seems popular) which IMO, is a great thing.
  • @ 1 - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • I'm confused, what does this mean? The only things they develop in house are the sports games.
  • Oh wait I think I get it, does this mean that they're only going to release already established franchises from now on, like battlefield, Mass effect and Dragon age? I can see EA hanging themselves with this move as it's harming their chances of finding some gems of titles. And I can remember reading somewhere, that they have a major exclusive deal running with M$ going into next gen, which is going to harm their cross product buys, especially if nextbox flops like I have a feeling it will.
  • "You maniacs! You blew it up!"
  • Or... Are we missing something? Like publishers becoming redundant due to digital platform distribution? Then again would think EA would b going evermore harder on it, as publishing would be easier, and still get money for being a middle man
  • Does this mean, they are closing the servers soon for these games?
  • I was hoping for a Brutal Legend 2. :(
  • FTA: "Titles like Rock Band, Crysis and The Orange Box were published by EA Partners." ... " The idea was to attract smaller, independent developers - who would be reluctant to get into a standard publishing deal." yeah, i'd say they got a little bit off focus.
  • @29 i'll have to keep an eye out for that. madness returns was awesome. definitely one of the most underrated games this generation
  • I'd hate to live in the world that #1 mentioned.
  • Suddenly Respawn is on less stable ground.
  • noooooooo they were gonna make a sequal to shadows of the damned too
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