EA wants its own Assassin's Creed or GTA

Open-world, big action games is something EA has yet to excel at. That is about to change.

EA, unlike other major publishers like Ubisoft, Warner, or Take-Two, doesn't have its own action franchise. The publisher's portfolio covers shooters, racing games, sports, and other smaller projects - but nothing quite on the level of GTA, Assassin's Creed, or Batman.

"If you look at the biggest segment in our industry, which is action, we don't have a lot," EA's executive vice president Patrick Soderlund told IGN. "EA is not known to make gigantic action games like Assassin's Creed or Batman or GTA or those types of games that are really big.

"The strategic direction that we put in motion is to expand our portfolio more into that segment, to see what can we bring to gamers that maybe hasn't been done before."

IGN quickly asked whether Motive, the new studio headed by former Ubisoft Jade Raymond - herself a veteran producer of this particular genre, marks the beginning of this direction. Soderlund was reluctant to confirm, adding that in order to be able to make those games, EA needs the right people.

"You need a leadership and people that have done this in the best and they've done it successfully in the past. That, coupled with a large ambition to invest in new IP. We want to. We're building a lot of new IPs today but we want to invest more money into new IP."

Outside of assisting Visceral with Amy Hennig's Star Wars project, Motive is also working on a new IP. Presumably, it will be the first one to come out of this new direction.