24
Jul
2009
EA gets into the cheap, fast game market on iPhone
EA has seen the iPhone as a place to release $10 ports of its big-name properties, but a new EA studio will go in the other direction with inexpensive, high-concept titles. The first game? Yup, it involves zombies.
EA’s approach to iPhone gaming has been to recreate its most successful properties as high quality, high price games. The games created have been pretty great so far, but success on the iPhone often goes to cheaper, high-concept titles, and EA has decided to get in on that action as well: the publishing giant has created a small studio called 8lb Gorilla to create easy to learn, inexpensive games for the iPhone.
The first title coming from the studio? Zombies & Me, a title where you herd zombies under incoming missiles to blow them up, saving your grandma’s house. The game can be understood and played in a matter of seconds, but the intense nature of play may give the game longer legs than even higher-priced titles. Or at least that’s the hope.
The problem with iPhone games is that many people are starting to figure out that buying on launch is a bad, bad idea. Many games go on sale in a matter of days. By starting at under a dollar for the games, they become an impulse purchase instead of something gamers have to think about, and there’s very few places for the price to go.
The game is coming very soon, and we should expect a title from 8lb Gorilla every month or so. A small studio making cheap, quick games and releasing them on a regular scale, adding the level of polish we expect from mobile EA titles? This could be big.
