Electronic Arts

Ultima Reborn [DS – Cancelled]

Ultima Reborn was a title planned to be released in 2008 for the DS by Electronic Arts, and was in development at their Montreal branch for some time. As its name implies, it is an Ultima title, slated to be a remake of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.

Unlike previous Ultima games, which used a top-down view, this remake would have featured a side-on perspective, similar to games such as Street Fighter and Final Fight. The concept art available has had mixed reactions, with some fans feeling that the game appeared to stray too far from its Ultima roots, and others praising the new visual and artistic style, as well as the scantily-clad women.

Images:

 

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.

Image: 

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.

Images: 

LMNO [X360 PS3 – Cancelled]

LMNO (also known as The Escape Artist) is a cancelled action adventure that was in development for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 from 2005 to 2010 by Electronic Arts Los Angeles, with the help of Steven Spielberg. As we can read in Wikipedia, the partnership with Spielberg, first announced in 2005, was to produce an action game with an aim to evoke emotion, described as “a mix of first-person parkour movement with adventure/RPG objectives and escape-focused gameplay, all based around the player’s relationship with an alien-looking character named Eve”.

The team never released many information about the game, but after it was officially cancelled in october 2010, 1UP wrote an interesting article about LMNO, in which we can read some previously unknown facts on the project and see a target-render video:

When EA signed its deal with Spielberg in 2005, some of the specifics were intentionally left unclear. The deal committed him to create three franchises for EA, but initially, LMNO was the only one locked in, and there was no team in place to make it. Project two, “PQRS,” went on to become Boom Blox, while project three hasn’t been mentioned publicly since the deal was announced.

EA’s answer was to hire designer Doug Church and build a small team around him in their Los Angeles studio. Through 2007, they put together a group of 25-30 people who worked under Young’s EA Blueprint group — a quiet experimental label designed to build new intellectual property while outsourcing much of its production (such as some of LMNO’s level design that went to Arkane in France late in the project’s life) — to prototype ideas. […]

On the surface, it was a first-person action/adventure PS3/360/PC game set in modern times. Players would split their time between light role-playing objectives like talking to characters to uncover information, and action sequences featuring a lot of what the team referred to as “escape gameplay” where the player would run from approaching helicopters and FBI-style agents too overwhelming to fight face-to-face. […]

The developers did a lot of prototyping with Eve to make for a strong connection between her and Lincoln. Part of that came visually — Eve’s design was deliberately exaggerated, with large eyes and lanky fingers, to help the animators express her emotions, and she was designed to be sympathetic and sensitive rather than a sex symbol. Part of that came with her abilities — she could team up with Lincoln for cooperative attacks, or project things into his vision because she had the power to tap into his mind, so things like storm clouds would appear when she was in trouble. […]

In 2008 EA laid off most of the LMNO team, and the project evolved from a characters-driven adventure into a more traditional action game (now called The Escape Artist), somewhat similar to Uncharted. It seems that the original LMNO concept was too abitous and even after the change in its design, EA decided that it was not worth the risk to continue with the development, after so many years of work and money already spent on it. Instead in November 2009 EA acquired popular social game developer Playfish, and on the same day laid off approximately 1,500 employees in other EA studios“.

Images:

Videos:


 

Aspect Warriors [GEN MD SNES – Cancelled?]

Aspect Warriors is a cancelled action game / RTS based on the Warhammer 40000 universe, that was in development by Electronic Arts for the Genesis / Mega Drive and Super Nintendo. The game was previewed in some european magazines, but in the end it seems that it was never released (or was it published under a different name?). Only few screens remain to preserve the existence of Aspect Warriors.

Thanks to Rod_Wod for the scans!

Images: