The other objective is to listen to the community when designing video games, so that they are participants in the process.
Laura Miele began her professional career at Westwood Studios, the team behind Command & Conquer. Twenty-five years later, the developer is now head of the internal studies at Electronic Arts. In an interview with IGN, the creative has confirmed that there is already great creative independence within her studies, while continuing to listen to the followers in order to take note of the feedback received.
“When it comes to our development philosophy, the players are always the guiding star,” says Miele. “Since I started in my current position, I wanted to put aside some preconceived notions about the games we should invest in.” In his words, everything happens by “starting to listen to the players and incorporate their voices in the development process.” He points out, yes, that keeping the focus on the player does not mean that all of them are happy all the time.
The games fans wanted
From that moment on, EA has announced the titles that people were asking for, that is, “a new Skate, College Football, Command & Conquer Remaster and the Mass Effect trilogy.” On the other hand, it also highlights the free content that they added in Star Wars Battlefront 2 “to change the perception” that people had of it, very damaged by the controversy of loot boxes. Then take the example of Skate 4, a video game developed by the new Full Circle studio: “We call it Full Circle for a reason: we want our players to experience full circle EA, they deserve to be part of the process.”
Miele reveals that they have recently joined a team that will work on developing innovative technology for long-term development, such as Madden or FIFA. “These teams explore innovative initiatives that players will experience in two to three years.”
Respawn Entertainment has not returned to the Titanfall saga, despite Apex Legends taking place in that universe. According to Miele, the team is very proud of the brand’s legacy. “That study will determine what the future holds for Apex and Titanfall. I don’t believe in dictating or telling development teams what to create, it has to come from the community of players and from the inspiration and motivations of the developers ”. The head of the studies maintains that “there is great autonomy within EA”, but there are “certain values and principles” that they maintain as a company and that must be respected.
