Electronic Arts announced earlier today that it has signed a publishing agreement with Insomniac Games, the developer behind the Resistance, Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank franchises. The agreement concerns an upcoming multiplatform title in a new franchise and universe that will come to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This title, for which no details are available at this time, is the first game in the 16-year existence of the studio that is being developed for more than a single platform. Until now, the developer created games exclusively for the Sony Playstation.
In a video message directed at the Insomniac Games fanbase, CEO Ted Price reassured fans that this news does not imply the studio will cease to support popular franchises that have been published by Sony in the past. According to Price, Insomniac Games remains dedicated to Sony, as well the Resistance and Ratchet & Clank franchises.
Insomniac Games remains an independent developer under the agreement, and therefore maintains control of the IP of this new franchise.
This may not be as much of a loss for Sony as people may be thinking. Resistance is still in line for sequels, and there is no word on whether out Insomniac Games produced outside this single-game publishing deal (an odd outlier in VG industry finance.)
What this means for this game could be that there isn’t as much confidence for it to sell on just one platform, so Insomniac hooked up for a multi-platform release.
About time. I think everyone saw this coming, and I think it is a great thing for the industry. This will be along the same lines as Bungie also publishing for the PS3… its good for everyone.
Both Bungie and Insomniac are keeping good relationships with their past publishers (Sony and MS), and I see them continuing to support those consoles exclusively with other franchises in the future.