Shank, Deathspank To Be Published By EA Partners
Back at PAX in September I had the absolute pleasure of discovering a lovely little game called Shank. At the time its developer Klei Entertainment had yet to secure a publisher for the title. All that changed due to all the positive buzz generated from its first public outing and Electronic Arts struck a deal with Klei to bring players the comic book styled beat-em-up / action / shooter hybrid through their EA Partners initiative. While no release has been released, they were willing to spill the beans that Shank will be stabbing its way onto the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Arcade.
Also coming your way to PSN and XBLA from EA Partners is similarly cartoonishly violent title named Deathspank. Similar to Shank, Deathspank got the attention of players and EA at PAX with its pick up and play approach to the action RPG genre. This title comes our way from Hothead Games, better known as the fine folks that brought us Penny Arcade Adventures.
[EA Partners to Publish Shank, Deathspank] 1up.com
Game-Boy
Posted to Video Games on 5 March 2010
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: deathspank, ea partners, psn, publishing rights, shank, xbla
I was really sad to hear this news. I don't support EA and their monopolistic practices and consuming and dismembering of smaller companies.
I really wanted to play Deathspank too. I saw the demo at PAX and it looked brilliant.
Don't be confused here, Mad Mage. EA isn't buying out either of these companies, but just working with them to release these games through their thirdparty developer-forced EA Partners program. Klei and Hothead are still free agents to do as they please.
Considering some of the news that hit earlier this week ( http://gaygamer.net/2010/03/craziness_abound_activision_in.html ), EA's business practices over the past few years, and some of the creative/indie-ish developers they've supported (namely Double Fine), you might not want to be so quick to judge them.
You make a strong argument, Game Boy. And I would never buy an Activision game either. That's less relevant since Activision has probably never even published a game I'd enjoy.
But EA is publishing these games, yes? Which means buying one of them is actively patronizing EA. Now I understand that EA has in recent years changed their 'factory' style of game making. But I will not support a company who is willing to pay millions of dollars to secure an exclusive contract with the NFL for the sole purpose of eliminating all competition. Good business sense, yes? morally bankrupt, more-so.