EA Taps Starbreeze For Secret Franchise Revival

Officials from Electronic Arts have announced that the company has teamed up with Swedish developer Starbreeze Studios to “reinvent one of EA’s most acclaimed classic franchises”. Apart from the internal codename of Project RedLime, though, no other information has been revealed. Starbreeze is best known for the well received first person shoot ‘em-ups The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The developer is currently working on an extension of the latter for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 subtitled Assault on Dark Athena. The new game for Electronic Arts is being developed for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC but no other details, including a release date have been revealed. Internet speculation has suggested titles such as Desert Strike, Road Rash, System Shock and Syndicate as possible franchises being updated, although none appear to have any special relevance to Starbreeze’s previous experience or the project codename. “EA Partners is thrilled to hand over the keys to one of EA’s most acclaimed franchises to Starbreeze Studios,” said David DeMartini, vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “Starbreeze’s pedigree is undisputed and we could not be happier to welcome them to the EA Partners family. The team is creating an incredibly innovative take on a classic property and EA Partners is poised to deliver a blockbuster launch on the global stage,” he added. “EA Partners gives independent developers like Starbreeze access to EA’s unrivaled global publishing infrastructure, letting us focus our energy on what we do best – making incredible games,” said Johan Kristiansson, CEO of Starbreeze Studios. “We’re already deep in development on Project RedLime and the team at EA is giving us the time we need to perfect our vision. We’re excited to bring a new perspective and gameplay innovation to this beloved fiction.”