EA's Soderlund: "The day we stop doing new IP is the day we put ourselves on life support"

EA Europe's label boss Patrick Soderlund has said the firm is "innovative" despite criticisms to the contrary, and cited Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted as two such examples of the firm's commitment to innovation.

"A lot of people criticise EA for not being innovative", Soderlund said. "But look at what EA has done with Battlefield 3. We said, here's a game that looks like nothing you've ever seen before. We looked at animation, we looked at audio, we looked at every single part of the visual experience and we said: how can we change this? I think if that's not innovation, I don't know what innovation is.

"Then you look at Most Wanted this year and Need for Speed really looks cool and different. Those things don't just happen by mistake, those are all diligent strategies with someone saying: 'probably not good enough'."

Speaking with MCV, Soderlund concurred that EA has "three to five" games in the works for next-gen consoles, a statement which EA labels president Frank Gibeau has made previously, but wouldn't go into detail on the projects.

"To me, the day we stop doing new IP is the day we put ourselves on life support and then we're slowly going to die," he said. "It's not only needed for the industry and for the consumers but it's also needed for the creatives.

"They need something different to think about. They have a lot of creativity built into them that they need to get out. The day that we stop thinking about new things that are not Need for Speed is the day that I'll probably leave the games industry."

EA expects new consoles from Sony and Microsoft to land at retail "in about a year's time."