EA Reveals Glimpse of Spielberg Games

EA's heralded - and no doubt costly - relationship with film director Steven Spielberg may finally bear fruit, as EA discloses brief details of two games in development.

Mega game-publisher Electronic Arts has disclosed brief details of two games it is developing with Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg. The games will mark the first fruit of EA’s much-heralded (and now doubt expensive) multi-year partnership with Spielberg announced in late 2005. Under the deal, Spielberg will develop three new games for Electronic Arts; EA gets full rights to the games, while Spielberg gets first crack at adapting the games for film or television.

According to EA, the first two games in development are codenamed “LMNO” and “PQRS.” LMNO is a contemporary action adventure game, in which a central female character evolves over time depending on how she interacts with other characters in the game—and the player, who’s in the role of a former secret agent. Newsweek describes the title as “North by Northwest meets ET,” which Spielberg told the publication that the challenge of the game’s design is whether it “can have an emotional impact on players while they are actively manipulating the world?” LMNO is targeting the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.

PQRS, conversely, is being developed for the Wii, and is a puzzle-like game in which players manipulate blocks. Based on an idea Spielberg had while playing Wii Tennis with Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the game uses a physics simulator to bring a Jenga-like character to the game in which players manipulate blocks with the Wii remote—but blocks can explode or form complex reactions, based on up to50 different properties associated with them. Spielberg describes the game as aimed at the entire family.

No details on the third game in the Spielberg/EA partnership were revealed, nor were estimated ship dates or price points for LMNO or PQRS. But we guarantee they’ll end up with different titles. EA plans to preview the games at this week’s E3 Media & Business Summit in Santa Monica.