EA

The Sims 2 [Beta – PC/MAC]

In 2001 Maxis began development of a successor to The Sims, due to the massive success of the game. The game had 2 development versions. Not many people know, but according to many users on “Mod The Sims” forums, almost all the games development data was lost during a small office server room fire, that resulted in most of the game being developed again from scratch (In addition to this, Maxis also at the time revealed that source codes for many other titles were also lost, such as the console games for example). Many things that were planned were cut due to that reason, such as weather in the base game, and scenarios (an early trailer actually shows that during a storm, the power can go out and you must fix it by pulling a breaker).  Additionally, the beta basements were originally intended, but lost during the re-development.

The graphics in the original version look more like graphics seen in “The Urbz” and “The Sims Bustin Out”, which makes it possible the early version may of been using the same engine as those 2 titles, as they were pretty advanced for being console games.

Although the game went into redevelopment, alot of features from the lost build was restored, such as most of the furniture shown in the images and videos of the lost build, music and sounds. Additionally, Weather features like rain, was present in the lost build, but not in the final build. This feature was later restored in The Sims 2 Seasons.

The game was initially confirmed to release in early 2004. But due to the redevelopment the date was delayed until September 2004, which ea called “Final Touches”.

Images of the beta can be seen here:

In the video below, many things are noted to be different. Music from “The Sims Bustin Out” is present, character voices are completely different, and a few other interesting things are shown. Also, a more in depth create a sim was present, that even allowed you to fully and 3D rotate sims heads.

 

Scorched Earth [3DO – Cancelled]

When the 3DO was first revealed in mid 1993 among the games presented by Electronic Arts to support the system there was a mysterious action game titled Scorched Earth. Very little is known about it and it’s still unclear if it has anything to do with the artillery game with the same name. Scorched Earth’s developer is rumored to be Monkey Do Productions (Road Rush for 3DO). Let us know if you have additional information about this game!

Lonely image from EGM issue 48.

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World Builders Inc. [3DO – Cancelled]

When 3DO was first revealed in mid 1993 among the games presented by Electronic Arts to support the system there was a nice sci-fi simulation called World Builders Inc. Not much is known about it however in September 1994 the game was already on hold for unknown reasons and in the end it was never released. If you know something else about World Builders Inc, please let us know!

Images from Edge issue 1, EGM issue 48, GameFan issue 1-9 and 1-11, Player One issue 33.

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NBA Elite 11 [X360 PS3 – Cancelled]

NBA Elite 11 is a cancelled basketball game that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, meant to be the first installment in the NBA Elite series, succeeding EA’s NBA Live series. As we can read in Wikipedia, NBA Elite 11 was originally planned to be released on October 2010, but the game was delayed until March 2011 due to “concerns about gameplay polish”. Basically, the game had too many problems, gamers we not happy with the demo and EA decided to cancel it.

The game’s cancellation was officially announced on November 2010 and development of the franchise was moved from EA’s Black Box studio to its Florida-based Tiburon studio. EA has stated that it will instead release free DLC for last year’s NBA Live 10, including roster updates for the 2010–11 NBA season.

Some more info can be found at Escapist Magazine website:

EA recently conducted “seasonal layoffs,” though the company says its current restructuring efforts are “relatively small.” Part of this restructuring appears to be moving the NBA Elite series, which it does plan to bring back in the future, from EA Black Box to EA Tiburon.

Analysts estimated that NBA Elite 11’s delay was going to cost EA somewhere in the realm of $60 million with around 1 million in lost sales for this fiscal year, so now those estimated numbers may be straight up losses. NBA Elite 11 was reportedly delayed over quality concerns, which freed up pack-in NBA Jam for a solo release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Thanks to Federico for the contribution!

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Gunhead [X360 PS3 – Pitch / Cancelled?]

Gunhead is an action game that was in development by Electronic Arts Vancouver, but very little is known about this project other than a few concept arts that were leaked and posted in gaming forums in december 2009. It seems that Gunhead was an internal pitch at EA that will never see a release, as we can assume from the following quote published on Blue’s News:

On the off chance you were interested in more info on this EA project, the gist of it is that the main character is a guy whose head is a gun. That’s it,” he tells us. “EA has been trying to get this game made for ages now. … It was a pretty lame idea, and we had no real interest in developing it for them. Every so often, I hear it pop up here and there, and it makes me laugh that they are still trying. I really must wonder who’s baby the idea is for it to not have died a well deserved death yet…

The concept arts look really nice, so we can hope that more screens or videos could be preserved in the future.

Thanks to Hey Hey for the contribution!

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