EA's Spielberg collaboration binned

By Fred Dutton Published 11 October, 2010

"Politics" killed Project LMNO.

Steven Spielberg's second collaboration with EA, codenamed Project LMNO, has been canned, the publisher has confirmed.

A spokesperson for EA told Joystiq, "While EA maintains its relationship with Steven Spielberg, we ceased development of LMNO."

Former EA employee Jake Kazdal elaborated further in the latest 8-4 Play podcast. "I don't wanna get the EA police on me. I can't say too much. It was very ambitious. We had a small team - very smart people on it. And we spent a lot of time thinking and talking. And doing some stuff. And it just sort of... I don't know exactly what was the thing that made it fall apart."

"I'm sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but it didn't end up ever taking off. There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics."

Project LMNO was thought to be an action adventure game.

Of the three titles Spielberg agreed to help EA make back in 2005, only one of them has made it into stores. Spielberg's first project with EA, Boom Blox, was released on Wii in 2007 to critical acclaim and modest commercial success.

Spielberg hasn't turned his back on the world of videogames though. Rumour has it he's keen to make that on-again off-again Halo movie.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • funkateer #1 2 years ago

    I understand why publishers look at high-profile movie names like Spielberg. But really, as great as Spielberg is, you need to look at the names that can really move the medium forward; people that understand the games medium.
    I mean, James Cameron didn't really get "Avatar The Game" the success they intended, did he? Cameron and Spielberg are first and foremost movie makers at heart.

    Ninja Theory seem to have made some interesting choices with Serkis and Garland. Naughty Dog reportedly had high profile people from the movie business working with them on Uncharted 2 (undisclosed because of a writer's strike).

    If developers and publishers keep focusing on high profile movie names just for the sake of it, it's just not going to take off!

  • Number1Laing #2 2 years ago

    My guess is that EA got cold feet after they noticed all these "smart people talking" and realized they were going to get another Spore.

  • Spekingur #3 2 years ago

    Wasn't Spielberg involved with the original MOH?

  • Markitron #4 2 years ago

    For me Spielberg lost whatever gaming credibility he had at the E3 09 Microsoft press conference. He had no reason to be there other than to be a famous person saying Natal will change gaming forever.

    This was in the same speech where he said gamers dont get emotionally invested in games (or something to that effect). Clearly he has never heard of the RPG genre in general, his remarks came across as ignorant and condescending to me.

  • Kerome #5 2 years ago

    Well... Natal may actually change gaming forever ;) You never know, and controller-less gaming is kinda a big deal.

    But yes, if I think of the most innovative and striking games of the last year, most of them don't relate to movie director tie-ins. They are not the people coming up with the likes of Limbo - as bold a narrative+style+play combination as I've seen in ages - despite the big reputations.

  • Cronan #6 2 years ago

    So, it tuns out that film directors (has-been or otherwise) aren't very good at getting games made. Who would have thunk?

  • CaptainQuint #7 2 years ago

    Spielberg ain't ever gonna find his lost mojo in the games industry, either.

  • schnide #8 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint

    Project Lost Mojo Now Over :)

  • superbeast2010 #9 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 10:57:39 01-02-2012

  • darkphoenix #10 2 years ago

    The GC cut-scenes of MGS are the worst of the entire series, Matrix-rip off that ruined the original.