Dante Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 EuroGamer - Development of Mirror's Edge 2 has been "stopped" by EA. A team at DICE showed EA a prototype that was "declined", according to a Eurogamer Sweden translation of a Press 2 Play TV report. "Patrick [soderlund - EA driving and shooting game boss] acknowledges that Mirror's Edge didn't match up to their expectations regarding sales, and that has stopped the sequel that has been in development," declared the report, published originally in December. "EA was shown a prototype, but declined with askance. The project has been stopped - involved parties at DICE are working on something else now. Patrick himself seems to have Mirror's Edge near his heart, but they are not in the business of charity." Presumably the extra development is going into Battlefield 3 - EA's well publicised attempt at wrestling shooter supremacy from the Call of Duty series. Patrick Soderlund confirmed last summer that "a small team" at DICE was 'on' a new Mirror's Edge game. Eurogamer pressed him on that point last November. "Mirror's Edge is an IP that's close to my heart and EA's as well. It was a bold move from us. I'm proud we made it. It obviously didn't reach the commercial success we wanted, even though it wasn't bad at all," he said. "I still think as a company we're going to talk about it when we're going to talk about it. What I can say is, we haven't buried it. We're absolutely continuing to support Mirror's Edge as an IP. When we're ready to talk about it, we'll talk about it." EA Games boss Frank Gibeau went on record a few weeks later to say that the execution of Mirror's Edge "fell short". "There were issues with the learning curve, the difficulty, the narrative, and then there was no multiplayer either," he said. Mirror's Edge, a Parkour-inspired first-person action game, was released late 2009 on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Despite an 8/10 recommendation from Eurogamer, the eye-catching title failed to, well, catch punters' eyes - entering the UK all-formats chart at 20. Eurogamer has requested comment from EA.
dwarf Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 How can you kill an already dead franchise? In fact was it ever alive?
Magnus Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 I really enjoyed Mirror's Edge. It wasn't perfect, but I would have loved to have seen a sequel that fixed the first game's flaws. Though it's not really surprising that there won't be a one, considering how badly the first game sold. DICE is going to be stuck making Battlefield games forever now.
Aimless Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 (edited) How can you kill an already dead franchise? In fact was it ever alive? I imagine it's . EA will probably give the game another shot at some point, it's just a hard game to make a sequel to, especially if we're talking about a full price disk release. Multiplayer could work — have an asymmetrical Blues versus Runners mode — but even with that there's still the issue of nailing down the singeplayer identity: is it about freerunning, combat, puzzle solving, etc. It's not as easy a series to continue as Dead Space, a lot of things need to be rethought rather than simply evolved. For the record I really enjoyed the first, as did Shorty if memory serves. I'd love to see another one and I think we'll get one, eventually. Edited February 14, 2011 by Aimless Typo
Shorty Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 (edited) Yep absolutely, I really enjoyed it. Despite it having some overwhelmingly frustrating combat sections, I put a lot of effort into getting top scores on all the time trials, which I don't normally bother with. It was a refreshingly different game, in the way AC: Brotherhood's multiplayer is different to those around it, and that's something I always enjoy. The atmosphere was clean and bright, no browns or sepias, and the controls actually worked really well, once you got used to them. It's a shame it won't get a sequel, because it seems like the kind of game that would really benefit from one. The team could take a step back and really work on the bits that went wrong the first time, whilst also greatly expanding the series. Edited February 14, 2011 by Shorty
gaggle64 Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 Mirror's Edge was a good game with a great concept that actually did work and was hampered by rushed development and design decisions. The actual mechanics of it were brilliant. If there was ever a game that demanded a sequel this was it. It was and still is a shining light in a video game mainstream that was and still is obsessed almost entirely with destruction and warfare.
Goafer Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 Mirror's Edge was a good game with a great concept that actually did work and was hampered by rushed development and design decisions. The actual mechanics of it were brilliant. If there was ever a game that demanded a sequel this was it. It was and still is a shining light in a video game mainstream that was and still is obsessed almost entirely with destruction and warfare. Yep absolutely, I really enjoyed it. Despite it having some overwhelmingly frustrating combat sections, I put a lot of effort into getting top scores on all the time trials, which I don't normally bother with. It was a refreshingly different game, in the way AC: Brotherhood's multiplayer is different to those around it, and that's something I always enjoy. The atmosphere was clean and bright, no browns or sepias, and the controls actually worked really well, once you got used to them. It's a shame it won't get a sequel, because it seems like the kind of game that would really benefit from one. The team could take a step back and really work on the bits that went wrong the first time, whilst also greatly expanding the series. I agree with both of these. The game was excellent when it was doing the whole platform thing, but I didn't like the combat at all. I hated having to look for a way out whilst being shot to pieces by a group of cops. The way the character moved is unmatched for me. I loved how you had to pick up momentum and it really felt like you were throwing yourself around those levels. I would love to see a sequel to it to see if they could improve on the original. The concept/setting was great, as were the platforming sections. It's just a shame about the combat. It's like people say, why would anyone want to play a "gay" game about running away, when you can just pick up Gears of Duty: Reach and shoot some twats in the face? And I hate the phrase "We're not in the business of charity". I agree that the company needs to make money, but the way it's said makes him seem like a cynical, money obsessed dick with absolutely no passion for games.
MATtheHAT Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 I imagine it's . I have a sudden urge to play Mirrors Edge now. I might buy it for the 360, I remember seeing it for about £5 in GAME.
Cube Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 I imagine it's . It's hard to overstate my satisfaction of that song.
McPhee Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 Been meaning to re-play Mirror's Edge. It was a flawed game, but I really liked the concept (it just needed either better gunplay or else no guns). It's a shame the sequel has been cancelled, but not exactly surprising. Hopefully it gets revived some time, or they release an XBLA game focusing on the free-running/time trial aspect with extra levels released from time to time as DLC (i think that could really work tbh).
Aimless Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 To be fair there's an easy fix to the poor gunplay: don't use guns, they're completely superfluous bar one bullet which you don't even need to fire at a person.
Kav Posted February 14, 2011 Posted February 14, 2011 I absolutely loved Mirror's Edge. It's like DICE got together and said "right, we need to make this lad a game, his name is Kaveh, lets get to it". This game was made just to my taste... sure it had flaws, but I still loved it!
tapedeck Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 I remember loving the song and playing the demo over and over. The full game was a major disappointment though as trial and error whilst being shot at was a dire gameplay decision. Still...looked better than anything else at the time (colour!) and 'felt' superb. The setting was amazing and felt like Perfect Dark in the daytime. Hopefully we'll see it re-emerge later down the line. (Goes back to playing iPhone version...)
Dyson Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Mirror's Edge was a good game with a great concept that actually did work and was hampered by rushed development and design decisions. The actual mechanics of it were brilliant. If there was ever a game that demanded a sequel this was it. It was and still is a shining light in a video game mainstream that was and still is obsessed almost entirely with destruction and warfare. Perfect description of the game. I totally agree!
Choze Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Quite sad to hear. This was DICE's best game this gen. Refreshing and unique. It's bound to have afew issues here and there due to its new concept but they pulled it off amazingly well. It's the last DICE game i have played that has that feel to it that they wanted to to do new things and move the genre forward. Anyway their other stuff is just watered down crap to appeal to the COD masses. I have little interest in that.
Daft Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Good riddance. First person free running? An absurd contradiction.
Cube Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Good riddance. First person free running? An absurd contradiction. I thought the free running aspect of it worked really well.
Shorty Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Good riddance. First person free running? An absurd contradiction. Aah get off your I-do-Parkour-have-I-mentioned-it-yet-today high horse.
Ganepark32 Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 (edited) Really disappointed its been canned. Seriously hope we do see another one, even as a downloadable game, because it really deserves it. Just do away with the guns, tighten up the fighting and tone down the enemies a little and it'd be perfect. I loved the original. Paid full price for it and happy I did as I enjoyed the whole thing (also got a the free Faith Fenchurch t-shirt with it which I still wear). Looked great (with colour, something rarely seen in first person games this generation, and fit the dystopian city feel extremely well), the parkour controlled really well and felt surprisingly fluid (never got the complaints about the button placement for how you jumped or slide as I thought the shoulder buttons and bumpers were great) and soundtrack was fantastic. Really want to play it again now. Think I'll dig it out again. Absolutely loved the game. Edited February 15, 2011 by Ganepark32
Jamba Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Hmmmm... what up EA? Losing lots of money? This has had some really good market exposure and a sequel would probably sell quite a lot if it reviewed half well. What are you going to do with DiCE now? Make other generic shooter that won't compete against COD?
Dan_Dare Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 Battlefield is so far superior to COD it's actually hilarious.
Jamba Posted February 15, 2011 Posted February 15, 2011 I must admit that I enjoyed that more but I haven't been interested in playing one in years as I'm a bit bored of Vietnam and so on. Was Heroes good then?
Jamba Posted February 17, 2011 Posted February 17, 2011 Btw it turns out that this whole thing is crap. Just a whole bunch of comments taken out of context and people scraping the barrel. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-02-17-ea-mirrors-edge-an-important-franchise
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