Organic Growth and Other Cool Moves
For all the flak EA catches about their business practices and their ummm, general aura of menace, the EA Originals program is a different story. EAโs indie division is all smiles and sincere enthusiasm. A recent interview with EVP Matt Bilbey reveals just how EA keeps the Originals program humming along.
For Bilbey, the secret of the systemโs success is rooted in attention and organic growth. Each game added to the roster is connected to the larger company by a single producer. Bilbey maintains that they โdonโt want to get to the point where one producerโs looking after 10 or 15 different developers because thatโs when weโll lose the real uniquenessโ of the EA Originals program. The company has a similar outlook when it comes the programโs growth.
If the program gets bigger every year, itโs only because EA found more quality games. For Bilbey and the team, expansion hinges on the โquality of the opportunities from the independent development scene that we saw.โ Itโs a cautious approach that EA can afford to take, especially given how lucrative their main offerings are every year. While the EA Originals program doesnโt wipe clean their occasionally villainous image, itโs a big step in the right direction.