EA not interested in remakes - Moore

COO says HD re-releases feel "like pushing stuff out because you've run out of ideas"

While Electronic Arts is often right in the thick of new industry trends, the publisher has largely sidelined itself when it comes to the recent rash of AAA remakes and re-releases. Speaking with IGN, EA COO Peter Moore said the company took a dim view on the practice, saying "it feels like pushing stuff out because you've run out of ideas."

While Moore acknowledged that such efforts are appealingly cost-effective, he added, "Remakes, because of who we are, and this broad portfolio of intellectual property...you add all that together, I don't know where we find the time to do remakes. We're a company that just likes to push forward."

While EA has experience re-releasing old content, it has taken a different approach than some of its peers. Five years after the launch of the original Xbox 360-exclusive Mass Effect, EA brought the game to the PlayStation 3, giving Sony fans a chance to complete their collection of the sci-fi trilogy. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 also saw releases of years-old PC titles American McGee's Alice and Crysis, although those were offered as preorder bonuses alongside new multiplatform installments in those franchises.

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Latest comments (12)

Nick McCrea Gentleman, Pocket Starship6 years ago

I get the sentiment, but, to take one example, I would have paid £10 or £20 for a faithful, premium full-on Dungeon Keeper remake or HD remaster on iPad. But instead we got the notorious version that showcased the absolute worst in F2P design.

That I just do not get. Using an IP which has a lot of nostalgia amongst the slightly older, PC gaming crowd, and must have very little for the newer generation of gamers happy to get on board with F2P red-in-tooth-and-claw. An HD re-release is surely the lesser 'sin' here, than what was done?

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Andrew Goodchild Studying development, Train2Game6 years ago

I'd also love a desert/jungle/urban strike collection. I hope they seriously at least consider putting backwards compatable 360 games on EA access, and also original Xbox ones if MS does decide to pursue that.

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Carl Hudson Studying Computer Science, University of Adelaide6 years ago

They do like to reboot with old names, particularly in the Need for Speed line. I guess that's not remaking..

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Thomas Kennedy Unemployed (Seeking work) 6 years ago

I think the idea that Remake = out of ideas is a shallow way to look at it, Look at Resident evil, if you look at Resident evil 1 on the PSX all you see now is a historic game yes but now? its aged, in today's climate (Yes even with the current horror game state) its only purpose now is just its historical significance, so what did Capcom do? Remake it which gave us REmake from that, arguably one of the best horror games and best RE games out there that even now isn't showing age. Remakes aren't a sign of running out of ideas and more a sign of trying to bring back something from their past that did well and modernize it.

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Jordan Lund Columnist 6 years ago

I generally feel the same way about re-makes that I feel about backwards compatibility: People don't buy new hardware to play old games.

That being said though, this stat shocked me: 80% of PS4 owners never played Uncharted 1-3. Previously the stat was that 30% had never owned a PS3 before so either that number exploded dramatically or there were a lot of PS3 owners that never touched Uncharted.

Re-releasing Uncharted 1-3 is a good idea of those folks and should help sales of Uncharted 4.

Of course if they didn't find Uncharted 1-3 compelling the first time then perhaps it won't.

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Jeff Kleist Writer, Marketing, Licensing 6 years ago

I'm curious whether the alleged Mass Effext remake counts, as they're restructuring it, per rumor into one giant game

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Morville O'Driscoll Blogger & Critic 6 years ago

I generally feel the same way about re-makes that I feel about backwards compatibility: People don't buy new hardware to play old games.

Counter-point:

People run emulators to play classic games that aren't on their current system. :)

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Curt Sampson Sofware Developer 6 years ago

People don't buy new hardware to play old games.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. This is only anecdotal evidence, of course, but a strong factor in my purchase of a Vita recently was that I could still play many PSP and PSOne games. I think that the success of the mobile gaming market in general over the last few years has shown that games at the technical level of old PCs and consoles can still be quite appealing to users. I'm certainly enjoying the PSOne version Final Fantasy V just fine, and it's in fact a considerably better game than many modern mobile RPGs.

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Andrew Goodchild Studying development, Train2Game6 years ago

I cancelled a PS4 order and bought an Xbox one after E3, and backwards compatibility was part of the reason. I just also bought the rare collection. My xbone came with the halo collection, the first game I paid for was the upgrade to minecraft, on xbox 360 I have gunstar heroes, toejam and earl and others, some which I loved in my youth, some that I missed out on like Beyond good and evil or monkey island. My most played game on Steam by hours is probably the original Xcom.

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Alfonso Sexto Lead Tester, Ubisoft Germany6 years ago

@Thomas

so what did Capcom do? Remake it which gave us REmake from that, arguably one of the best horror games and best RE games (...) Remakes aren't a sign of running out of ideas and more a sign of trying to bring back something from their past that did well and modernize it.

Sorry, but I have to correct you there: REmake is from 2002 and what we got last year was an HD remaster of it. Also, the fact that Capcom is the only company that openly admitted that will prioritize re-releasing old stuff in HD, maybe doesn't make them the best example.

Just saying. Cheers.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Alfonso Sexto on 20th October 2015 9:12am

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Roberto Dillon Associate Professor, James Cook University6 years ago

Well, sometime there isn't much of difference between a "remake" and a "sequel", especially in the EA Sports line ;)

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Thomas Dolby Project Manager / Lead Programmer, Ai Solve6 years ago

I have to partly disagree with Moore here. If a great old game is now completely or near unplayable because of technical or aesthetic reasons, I'm more than happy to pay out for an HD re-make that allows me to start it up and perhaps play with friends without jumping through hoops and arcane workarounds.

However, I'd agree that remaking games that are only 4-5 years old isn't something I find appealing at all. I'd rather the studio focus on making new games.

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