One of the bigger announcements of E3 2013, while not a complete surprise, was Mirror’s Edge 2 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Speaking to CVG in an interview all about EA, Patrick Söderlund, Executive Vice President of the EA Games Label, talked up the original Mirror’s Edge, revealing that it sold “about 2.5 million units.” Then, when asked if the sequel was from fan demand, rather than the sales, Patrick said:
Both yes and no. It is obviously something that we know a lot of people want and fans have asked us for for many, many years. But more importantly, it’s a game that DICE wanted to build. They think that the first one was a great first attempt but it didn’t really deliver on the true vision that the guys had for that IP.
What we managed to do was come up with an IP that looked unlike anything that you’d ever seen before. It had gameplay innovations unlike anything you’d ever seen before, and had a very memorable and iconic heroine in Faith. Those three things by themselves should warrant success if executed well. And I think they saw it as a good first attempt.
I’ll be honest with you: we’ve been looking at Mirror’s Edge for many years and had small prototype teams and incubations around what it could be. But it wasn’t until Sara Jansson, who is now the producer on it, came to me and called Karl-Magnus Troedsson and said, ‘listen, I have an idea for what this could be’. She presented a vision so inspiring that we were like, ‘we have to build this now’.
The interesting part is that it was a game that could only be built in gen 4 and that was cool. I liked that because what they’re doing, it’s not possible on the current generation.
So that’s when I knew that we had something and spoke to EA. The support inside the whole company on Mirror’s Edge has been tremendous. We sold about 2.5 million units with Mirror’s Edge and people haven’t even blinked at it – like, ‘of course we’re going to make a new Mirror’s Edge’. The whole company has been behind it.
Of course we think that this will be successful, that people will love it and that we’re going to sell a lot more than we did with the first one. A lot of times you’ve got to follow your gut and your heart rather than looking at everything that necessarily made sense on paper. I think that our fans are pleased to hear that and I’m glad that I work for a company that can give us that opportunity, frankly.
Looking at how Mirror’s Edge 2 might play and if the original formula might change, Patrick said that “if you do the same thing again then it’s not going to work. You have to be very, very honest with yourself and look at what went right and what went wrong. It’s obvious that people loved the art direction, loved Faith and loved the idea of what you did in the game.” He also mentioned how the game was seen as too difficult, the story could have been been better, while “the notion of constantly running wasn’t maybe greatly perceived.”
After teasing how excited he is over the new innovations found within Mirror’s Edge 2, Patrick addressed the notion that this could be an open-world game by saying “we’re taking more of an action adventure approach on it than maybe before.”
What would you like to see from Mirror’s Edge 2? Let us know in the comments below.
