Electronic Arts’ Jeff Gamon on the evolution of EA Originals
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Electronic Arts’ major gaming franchises are familiar ones: The Sims, Madden NFL, Bioware’s titles and the series formerly known as FIFA. But besides the moneymakers, it also publishes a series of smaller titles from independent developers under its EA Originals program.
EA Originals have included several award-winning titles, most recently 2021’s Game of the Year It Takes Two. The upcoming game Wild Hearts, developed by Omega Force, will also be published under the EA Originals label.
GamesBeat recently spoke with Jeff Gamon, general manager of EA Partners, about the origins of the label, what they look for when selecting a partner for EA Originals and what EA provides to these game developers.
The EA Originals program began in the 2010s to support independent developers. The first game published under the label was Coldwood Interactive’s Unravel, which was memorably introduced at E3 2015 by its creative director Martin Sahlin. According to Gamon, Unravel was the catalyst behind the program’s creation.
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“That was the genesis of the Originals program. Unravel was an opportunity inside EA, which changed us quite fundamentally from a publisher of big annual iterations,” said Gamon. “It touched everyone — I mean, obviously it was a very moving, touching game. The process of making that with Martin and Coldwood and then subsequently publishing it had quite a profound impact on EA and the people who are close to it.”
Unravel was a noted
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