EA shutting down it's external publishing

EA Partners, the part of EA that publishes games made by external developers, is shutting down.

That's according to Game Informer, which has been told so by a number of anonymous sources.

EA Partners has published a number of eye-catching games in the past, including Valve's The Orange Box, Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead series. It also published the Crysis games, the Rock Band series, Brutal Legend after Activision ditched it, the ill-fated APB, People Can Fly's Bulletstorm, Starbreeze's Syndicate, Suda51's Shadows of the Damned and, wait for it, Hellgate: London.

It endured a particularly tough time of it in recent years though. The release of sprawling role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, after which developer 38 Studios shut down amid claims of mismanagement by former baseball star Curt Schilling, failed to have the desired impact. Funcom's The Secret World soon went free-to-play after launching as a subscription MMO. Even Crysis 3, which launched in February, is believed to have failed to meet expectations.

These recent struggles, coupled with the exit of EA boss John Riccitiello after a below-par 2013 financial year and widespread layoffs, give the closure of EA Partners the whiff of the expected.

Game Informer said the two games due to be published by EA Partners: Insomniac's Fuse and Respawn Entertainment's mystery first-person shooter, remain unaffected.

Its not been a great few months for EA has it really.....

EA Sucks Balls! lol

Reaper FWG wrote:EA Sucks Balls! lol

Says the man who spends how much on UT each year????

I Love there games, I just don't like them as a company, all there agames are broke on release, micro transactions in every game now. yearly updated titles with little diffrences, and im sure iv bought the same course on TW 12 years in a row

The company is loosing direction they think we have this huge fanbase who buy year in year out so we can stop trying, stop inavating........

Thing is Jamie, EA and Activision are the same in that respect - they play safe with the yearly releases of their cash cow franchises and get maximum return for minimal work.

And lets face it, who wouldnt adopt this strategy if they can get away with it?

Until sales drop to a level that makes them sit up and take notice it will never change either....

im thinking this of the new gears judgement after the pathtic dlc 2 maps on multi player 1 on overrun and a man at arms game type same as gun game on cod . did'nt think id do it but the trade pile awaites you my out of date pal.rip tide ftw.

I don't quite get all the hate on EA, yes they were at one time a huge cash cow company but the last few years have seen them take some considerable risks and also release some wonderful games.

Mirrors Edge, Dead Space and Battlefield 3 just wouldn't have been possible without EA. And yeah I'll admit I'm not a fan of 'micro-transactions' but EA have at least had the balls to include them in a way that doesn't hurt the core game.

I don't hate them per se but the annual releases & micro transactions show that they are happy to gouge their customers for whatever they can get.

Battlefield 3 would still have existed had they not bought Dice and I would go so far to say that there wouldnt have been a season pass for it either because prior to EA's involvement, Dice have always opposed charging for maps as to not fragment their online community - something which has blatantly happened with the BF3 DLC.

Dead Space has been mainstreamed to death by its 3rd iteration due to EA's influence.....