EA made a splash at E3 earlier this year with the reveal of A Way Out, a story-driven co-op thriller about a pair of convicts trying to survive after escaping prison. It stood in stark contrast to most of EA’s focus on service games, and the studio behind the game has a pretty impressive pedigree. Thanks to a leaked EA email, we may be hearing more about it very soon.
With most of 2017’s games already here, it’s time to look at the biggest upcoming PC games.
A Reddit user claims to have been placed on an internal mailing list that reveals the marketing plan for a pair of EA-published indie titles. While you’re right to be suspicious of the source, there’s enough detail here to suggest some truth to the claims. You can see the full plan here, but there are a few particular details to note.
We’ll apparently be seeing more of A Way Out’s central characters on December 7, which would certainly suggest The Game Awards as a venue, though PSX begins just a couple of days later. A reveal next week doesn’t mean we’ll actually be playing the game anytime soon, though, as the material boldly proclaims it to be “one of the most anticipated games of 2019,” which is quite a way off.
Notable in EA’s marketing plan is their characterization of director Josef Fares, who previously led Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. “Josef as a personality is a plus,” they say, “his passion is great, but need to watch out for controversy.” Presumably, that controversy would be something along the lines of what happened with Sean Murray and No Man’s Sky, where a very visible indie director made too many big promises about their game. But by now, EA should probably be used to controversy.
EA seem a bit more concerned with the other indie charge – the colorful action-adventure Fe. Early trailer views aren’t where they’d like, and they want to turn things around with whatever press and influencer blasts they can manage between now and the planned February 2018 release date.