EA Montreal restructures for â??HD blockbustersâ??

EA Montreal is to concentrate much of its attention on "action titles and HD-quality products", though the studio’s GM denies that the Wii will be abandoned entirely.

"The Wii market is a little bit unpredictable these days," said general manager Alain Tascan(pictured), as quoted in Edge Online.

In under three years EA Montreal has so far delivered four Wii titles – from the standalone efforts such as SSX Blur and Boogie Superstars, to the Wii ports of the Skate and Need For Speed franchises.

Now the studio will concern itself with fewer and bigger projects, Tascan indicated.

The catalyst for this shift in remit is due to the commercial success of Army of Two, says Tascan, who caimed the series is “the most successful original IPs EA has had in the last few years.”

Said Tascan: “We’re going to see how Christmas is going to do and while with the Wii we have had very successful titles, we are going to focus on big, blockbuster-type titles. It doesn’t mean that we are going to abandon the Wii, but as a studio we want to be ready for new challenges.

"This studio — our mobile division as well — is going to be very nimble and able to adapt to the market; I feel right now our label wants to focus on fewer and bigger things, and the market is going through this soft transition where people want these very high value productions on one side, which is our specialty within the games label, but also this casual, but high quality, product that they can play quickly, of which mobile is one part and Playfish is another.

“We’re just trying to adapt to the reality of today,” he added. “I think the market is showing that if you don’t adapt fast enough then you’ll be in trouble.”

Edge also reports on Tascan’s rather ambiguous response to questions surrounding the current round of EA layoffs.