New EA studio will focus on open world action-adventure games, lead by ex-Monolith head

Electronic Arts is building a brand new games studio based in Seattle that'll focus on open world action-adventure games, and it's lead by ex-Monolith Productions vice president Kevin Stephens.

EA has announced it's building a new studio that will operate out of Seattle, Washington, and its primary focus will be the development of open world action-adventure games – something EA wants to add into its already impressive roster of games.

As per an article from GamesIndustry.biz, the newly revealed studio is in the earliest stages of planning, so there's currently precious little information available about the titles it'll be working on. We do know, however, that Kevin Stephens (known for leading development on both Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War) of Monolith Productions will head up the newly minted studio.

EA senior vice president and group general manager Samantha Ryan will also be on hand to assist with the formation and running of the currently nameless studio. Ryan has worked with Stephens in the past, also at Monolith.

“We're still figuring out a lot of foundational questions," Ryan says in the article. "How big? What games? How fast to grow? Kevin and I both know how important it is to get the foundations of any studio 'right' and he'll take his time to figure it all out. When you rush, you don't give yourself time to be thoughtful. Why rush?”

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Ryan declined to comment when asked whether the new studio will be working on establishing a new IP, or working on an existing IP.

EA has been expanding its collection of studios quite aggressively lately. Just yesterday, we heard that EA will leave Codemasters to its own devices like it has with Respawn after it acquired the studio earlier this year.