"We're still working through things like how to best deal with Mirror's Edge 2," he said during a Wednesday morning interview in New York. "There are some things we learned about that [first] game. It was, I think, a massively innovative product. To be honest with you, I think it's a game that deserves to come back."

Riccitiello spent much of his interview with Kotaku affirming that his stated commitments to game quality and innovation made in 2008 were not shaken by relatively light holiday sales of original EA games such as Dead Space and Mirror's Edge last year. He considers both games, particuarly Dead Space, having set good foundations.

He also pointed to the company's 13% rise in revenues this year and said that it was directly attributable to efforts regarding quality and innovation.

Riccitiello is a gaming executive who believes not just in sequels — he was already saying, on the eve of EA's newest game, The Saboteur, that he's "hopeful for a sequel" — but is equally vocal about innovation and how the two so often go together.

Everything from recently improved EA FIFA games to some loved blockbusters of old, such as Grand Theft Auto IV, prove that successful sequels can and should house innovation. But, Riccitiello said, sometimes the sales success for an innovative game doesn't occur until a sequel or two, more polished than the predecessors, is released.

"Innovation doesn't mean it all works the first time," he said. "If it did everyone would do it."

And that kind of talk brought him back to Mirror's Edge and its future. He got specific about design decisions relevant to the original team at Mirror's Edge DICE and whoever is on the case — he didn't specify DICE or otherwise — who are pondering a sequel:

"I think Mirror's Edge was a fascinatingly original world.Fascinatingly original art direction. Music and sound design was great. I think the gameplay mechanic was a blast, but was intermittent and the levels didn't work. You found yourself scratching at walls at times, looking for what to do. Sometimes you had a roll going, downhill, slide, jump, slide, jump and then you just got stopped. It sort of got in the way of the fun.

"It was like we couldn't quite decide if we were building Portal or a runner. And I don't think the consumer was ready to switch it up quite that way. You could say it was a sharp and great innovation. I believe that it was. You have to figure out what to do from here if you want it to be a five million seller vs. a one-million unit seller.

"I've had several very lively debates with the dev team. And they are working on it. But there's a couple of different directions you could go.

"You could say: This thing needs to be more traditional. It's first-person game. There's a lot of successful FPS products out there that do really well. We could move in that direction.

"Or [you could say]: This was never about guns. It was about its stark originality. Maybe we can back away from some of those [older] things… and emphasize the smooth play and puzzles and move it toward, if you will, a Portal.

"And they're both valid. Innovation is a lot of times about getting so far, stepping back, assessing and then moving forward. And that's what I'm proud is happening at EA every day."

Potential fans of Mirror's Edge 2, you see the parameters of the design debate. Surely, you have some thoughts.

In making the move to Apple's handheld, the game is now a side-scroller, though with 3D graphics and the full range of Faith's moves like slides, runs, wall-runs and jumps.

It'll be 14 levels long, and as of now, no word on price or a more exact release date.

Of course, since being discovered it's gone, but previously, it had said that Carlén was currently involved on two projects: Battlefield 3, which we already knew about, and Mirror's Edge 2. Which we... also knew about.

Whether both projects are still going ahead after EA's recent blood-letting is anyone's guess, but I'm in no mood for guesses today. I'm in the mood for hope, and with Mirror's Edge my retrospective GOTY 2008, it's time to start hoping.

Portfolio of Oscar Carlen [oscarlen, via Joystiq]

Langdell, at the center of many controversies over the years regarding trademark rights to the word "Edge", has been involved in a similar dispute with Electronic Arts since 2007 concerning its title "Mirror's Edge." On Sept. 11, EA filed a petition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to wipe out five trademarks involved in the case, saying they have been threatened by Langdell for a year over the distribution of Mirror's Edge.

"EA has filed a complaint to put an end to legal threats over a trademark issue related to our game, Mirror's Edge," company spokesman Jeff Brown said Tuesday. "While this seems like a small issue for EA, we think that filing the complaint is the right thing to do for the developer community."

Langdell, in a statement to Kotaku, called Electronic Arts' petition "a desperate attempt by EA to see if they can win the right to use Mirror's Edge by forcibly removing Edge's legitimate rights to Edge." Langdell pointed to a USPTO ruling in his favor, from August 2008, which found EA's registration of the trademark "Mirror's Edge" had been granted in error, and the company's subsequent abandonment of the mark - made official Sept. 8 - "stands as an acceptance of Edge's rights."

The USPTO database does list the trademark "Mirror's Edge" as "abandoned" as of Sept. 8, 2009. When asked about the timing of EA's filing, Brown, the spokesman, said only that the company had been unsuccessful in its yearlong attempt to resolve the dispute, and "we feel it is important to establish the rights of developers in this situation. So we filed the petition to cancel those marks."

Brown also declined to comment when asked if the petition was at all related to any upcoming product announcements using the word "Edge." Nor would he specify how negotiations with Langdell broke down.

Over the years, Langdell has been accused of heavy-handed behavior against developers who wittingly or unwittingly use the word "Edge", which he trademarked years ago for use in video games, and a slew of other associated products since then. In addition to the disagreement with EA, Langdell has been involved in a bitter dispute with Mobigame, whose iPhone game EDGE has appeared on the iTunes App Store and was later removed when he challenged Mobigame's usage of the title.

The notoriety surrounding this action in large part led to a campaign to have Langdell removed from the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association. Langdell voluntarily quit the board last month rather than face a removal vote.

"A lot of small developers who are faced with this situation settle claims because they don't know how, or can't afford to fight for their rights," said Brown, the EA spokesman. "We hope that as a result of this action, other developers will be less intimidated by unwarranted legal threats."

But Langdell counters that EA is trying to poison sentiment against his company, and that its accusations "sound like comments intended to sway indie game news reporters' opinion and deflect you away from the obvious fact that it is EA [that] indie developers need to be protected from."

In the filing, Electronic Arts alleges that Langdell has effectively abandoned these trademarks through disuse. While Langdell vigorously states his company is actively involved in the development of games, both Mobygames and this analysis say the last game published by Edge Games was in 1990.

Edge Games' Web site says it is developing four multiplatform titles, one of which "Racers," was released on Sept. 9. "Clearly, Edge has not abandoned its trademark and that allegation is obviously destined to fail," Langdell told Kotaku. Langdell's statement says Edge's games "are on general sale at this time as they have been at all times over the past many years."

Significantly, EA also alleges that Langdell fraudulently obtained the trademark registrations, filing out-of-date and even falsified specimens to obtain them. EA alleges two registrations, dated 1996 and 2006, used box covers from games published in 1989 and 1990 and were not examples of a mark used in commerce, especially as the 1990 game was developed for the since-discontinued Commodore Amiga. Another 2009 registration submitted an Edge mark used on the 1986 game Bobby Bearing, saying that game had been in use "continuously over the past five years," on mobile phones. EA claims that is false.

EA says two other registrations, in 2004 and 2005, were obtained by submitting a nonexistent magazine cover in one case, and a Hulk comic book published in the 1990s in another. (Langdell claims to have licensed trademarks to the two publications.)

Langdell flatly denied that Edge ever committed fraud in applying for its U.S. trademarks.

Langdell has also said that Mobigame told him, in an email published here, that it and Electronic Arts had formed some sort of partnership, to what end he did not say. In a lengthy public statement published last August, Langdeel seems to imply that EA and Mobigame might be working together "to seek to undermine our rights in EDGE," to get out of an agreement Langdell says Edge and EA had reached earlier.

Brown, the EA spokesman, said that to his knowledge EA has no formal relationship with Mobigame. A request for comment left with Mobigame was not answered as of publication time. Mobigame replied to Kotaku that, in May, it had been working on a video game project unrelated to EDGE, or any game involved in this dispute, licensed by a British company that was in negotiations with Electronic Arts to publish it. Those negotiations have since ended, Mobigame's David Papazian said.

According to a notice sent by the USPTO, Langdell has until Oct. 27 to respond to EA's petition. Should the matter proceed to trial, that will begin in the summer of 2010.

Electronic Arts' filing may be downloaded here, in .pdf form.

Langdell, for his part, accuses EA of playing the bully in this matter.

"The key dispute for the past two to three years ... has always been between the multinational conglomerate EA and Edge fighting for its rights as a relatively small indie developer up against the giant corporate bully, EA," Langdell wrote. "It is a great pity that another fellow indie developer, Mobigame, got caught in the crossfire, but at least EA are now out in the open with their fight, now openly trying to stifle the legitimate rights of indie developers."

The mansion is set up like the board game Clue, except nobody dies. Instead, somebody breaks something and your Sim has to find out who did it by going over every inch of the mansion for clues and questioning other Sims. I know you're thinking "Whatever, standard adventure game stuff for kids." But, dear cynical gamer, there's something here aimed directly at you, not at a kid.

On the second floor of the mansion, there are some portraits you can interact with. Peer at a smaller one toward the right of the collection and who should be staring back at you but Faith from Mirror's Edge. Later, with some dedicated snooping and side mission completion, you can score an Isaac Clarke outfit from Dead Space for your secret agent Sim to wear.

Little details like this make up a lot of the MySims Agents experience. This makes sense, because the game is about becoming a star detective — and you won't get far on that path without an eye for details like strange portraits, footprints or hair salons. Throughout the game, you level up your snooping skills by upgrading gadgets and improving personal stats like charisma. You also build out your detective agency's headquarters and recruit other Sims to work for you.

That's another important detail I missed in my first look: the dispatch missions. Sure, I saw one of them and wrote about it — but I didn't grasp quite how important they were to the game as a whole. There are a total of 50 dispatch missions that you can send your recruited Sims out to solve. While a dispatch mission is in progress, your Agent Sim will receive texts on how the mission is going and sometimes a random chance card in the form of a phone call. Completing dispatch missions raises your Agent's relationship with client. Raise a relationship high enough and you can recruit that Sim to work for you (or just dance around like a moron) in your HQ. Once you finish all the dispatch missions, you'll get to see not one, but two alternate endings after finishing the main part of the game.

I've said before that I get the feeling Agents is taking the MySims series in a different direction than previous games. Before (in, say, MySims Kingdom), the series was mostly about building things and visiting familiar characters from within the series. It was isolating to the point where I was embarrassed to play MySims Racing without a child companion to use as an excuse. But now — what with Dead Space references and an actual plot — I feel like the series is moving toward a type of game that could appeal to everybody despite being designed with a younger audience in mind. Kind of like Pixar films in the Disney lineup.

MySims Agents is out September 29.

In an interview with Gamasutra, EA's Frank Gibeau has said:

I think in the spirit of your question, I think we launched too many new IPs all at once in Q3.

I would have spread them out and found better windows for them. I would have had longer marketing for them. The marketing cycles were fairly short. We didn't have enough assets to really build the fanbase, build the community, and get that long lead demand built.

So I probably in hindsight would have picked a couple different windows for Dead Space and Mirror's Edge.

In hindsight, yeah, I bet you would have. But you know, for all the people getting down on both those games...in the 6-9 months since their release, word has spread. Both were, for their quirks, excellent games (probably my two favourite from 2008, even). So when the sequels roll around, things will be different. People will be ready. Ready with money.

A Different Track: Frank Gibeau Talks Strategy [Gamasutra]

Patrick Soderlund, senior vice president at EA Games Europe, admitted to game site VideoGamer.com that Mirror's Edge was not perfect by any means and EA would have liked the game to sell better, but the company was moving forward with a sequel of the "risky" title.

According to the exec, "You will see another Mirror's Edge for sure. It's just a matter of when that time is and what we do with it. We have a small team on it and I'm excited about what we do."

Soderlund offered no further information about this previously unconfirmed sequel, nor did he offer a launch window for the title.

EA confirms ‘small team' working on Mirror's Edge 2 [VideoGamer]

The work of Jesse James Allen and his crew, it shows Faith (played by Yen Ryder) doing the kind of thing she does best, in the kind of places she likes to be seen.

While some of the shots in the gallery are a little cheesy, others restrain themselves enough to bring a little light to our dreary Monday morning.

The Mirror's Edge [Savage Land @ Flickr]

If you own a copy of both Unreal Tournament III and Mirror's Edge, all you need to do is perform a quick folder copy and, presto, you've got yourself a Mirror's Edge level editor.

With the real game marred by too many indoor levels (even though it was, in hindsight, probably my favourite game of 2008), here's hoping fans and modders can provide us with some extended rooftop sequences. More jumping, more running, less getting lost inside office buildings.

Mirror's Edge Editor... Found? [Beyond Unreal]
Modding [On Mirror's Edge]

John Pleasants, EA's chief operating officer, told a Goldman Sachs conference last week the company's plans for success last year were built on assumptions that games like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge would be blockbusters. They weren't.

"The biggest thing was that we didn't make hits," Pleasants said, although many of its games were profitable (including those two.) The way to make hits? Marketing, not development, apparently.

Marketing is "one line item on our P&L that's increasing. We're reducing on other items, but we have titles that we want to have hit," Pleasants said. Looking back at the past three years, they figured they weren't spending enough, or spending at the right times, to get good games into hit status.

"The game-development process has evolved, so the marketing should as well," Pleasants said, meaning more focus on Web marketing. "It's less about ‘We have an idea, we go away for 24 months and spend $30 million working on a game, then put a little buzz out there and hope it works.' We need to have a dialogue with the audience, take a longer lead time and make sure we have the right mix of digital and traditional."

EA COO: 'The Biggest Thing Was That We Didn't Make Hits' In 2008 [PaidContent.org via CVG]

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, EA Redwood Shores GM Glen Schofield says that the company may be more choosy about what it ships in the fourth quarter. The publisher may take cues from the movie industry, which has a more healthy spread of big-budget releases.

"We're now learning that we could probably launch a game at any time, and if it's a good game it will be well received," Schofield said, pointing to unproven titles like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, two original games that might have fared better amid less crowded shelves.

Sure, the industry take for November and December in the United States is monstrous. And it's not like Dead Space was a Catwoman-caliber flop. But we hope EA gets its calendar sorted out.

EA: We've learned our lesson on release dates [GamesIndustry]

The Time Trial map for Mirror's Edge is all about the race. There's no police, no guns, and no city to speak of. Instead, main character Faith takes to the skies in nine races across seven stylized maps set up in the clouds, providing a serene setting to focus on your racing skills, as well as an extremely nasty fall if you happen to slip.

The pack is available today for 800 Microsoft points on the Xbox 360, or $10 for PC and PlayStation 3 players. PS3 owners also receive an extra-added bonus map for free, just because you gave Sony a lot of money. The free map actually made the original January 29th release date for the pack, but it's always nice to have a reminder.

Sure it cost them, but building a new franchise isn't cheap and at least some of their investments look like they will be paying off in the long run.

But what about the new titles that haven't yet hit the radar?

We've heard quite a bit about games that were in the works prior to Electronic Arts' dire financial announcements earlier this week. Keep in mind these are all rumored, unverified games, that come to us from trusted sources.

We're told that EA Tiburon, for instance, was working on a mixed martial arts game. While THQ has a licensing agreement with Ultimate Fighting Championship that doesn't expire until 2011, there are plenty of other ways to address the sport. And considering Tiburon's track record with sports games, it isn't hard to imagine that this game, if it survived the personnel and budget cuts, would be top notch.

On a more interesting front, at least to me, are the rumblings of what EA Blackbox was hard at work on leading up to the deep cuts that struck that studio. We're told that the studio behind the Need For Speed franchise and Skate 2 were neck deep in a new IP that was described to us as deeply creative and innovative. (Think Deep Space and Mirror's Edge) The most persistent rumor running the halls of Electronic Arts was that the game was going to be a third-person, run-and-gun action title with a very unexpected character and a very unexpected setting.

With the secret title pulling so much buzz at the publisher, we're hoping that it lands on its feet.

But even leading up to the news of the deeper cuts, not everything was rosey at Electronic Arts. We heard that despite the many denials, Steven Speilberg action title LMNO (pronounced Elemental) is dead in the water, the budget pulled, the assets locked away. Too bad, since we were hearing the game had landed Habib Zargarpour as art director.

It's a difficult time for everyone right now and maybe it makes sense for studios to pull back into their shells to weather the storm. Hopefully, though, we won't see a stop to what was becoming a renaissance of game design over at Electronic Arts.

Like Left 4 Dead, whose physical copies EA published, and which went on to sell 1.8 million copies. Or Rock Band 2, which sold 1.9 million units despite it's stupid, staggered release schedule (this data is until December 31, with the popular Wii version having only just come out).

The even riskier propositions - EA's wholly-original IP - did OK as well. They're hardly what you'd call a raging success, but both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space managed to sell over a million copies each.

For reference, EA's top-selling title for the quarter was FIFA 09, which moved an astonishing 7.8 million copies. Or more than those other four games combined.

According to EA:

To offer a completely smooth experience for players, DICE announced today that the DLC map pack for Mirror's Edge on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC will be delayed until February. However, the free exclusive map for PlayStation 3 players will be available to download on January 29 as previously announced.

Wonder why the first PS3 map - which is essentially the same as all the others, a collection of blocks floating in space - is OK for release but the others aren't...

Exclusive: No Mirror's Edge DLC on Thursday; delayed until February [Big Download]

The full time trial map pack for Mirror's Edge will hit in February, but this quick hit, exclusively for PS3 players, should keep you entertained for a while. Further details on Mirror's Edge DLC shenanigans at the official PlayStation blog. Video teaser after this...

Mirror’s Edge Exclusive (and free) Time Trial Map Available Tomorrow [PlayStation.blog]

gamezine have found a way to install/reinstate a feature (by means of some code work, so it's PC ONLY) missing from the game, which lets you "play" it in third-person view. I say "play" because, while mostly workable, it locks the camera on the x-axis, making vertical movement a little tricky. You'll also quickly find that DICE only bothered with 60-70% of the necessary animations for the viewpoint, so it can look a little rough.

Still! It's a nifty trick, and can be turned on and off at any time, meaning you can activate it for long jumps (where you really need to see your feet), make the jump, then get back to first-person mode.

To access this third-person mode, open "TDInput" in the following directory:

C:\Documents\EA Games\Mirror’s Edge\TdGame\Config\

Then paste the following line in above the bit where it says "Bindings=(Name="F5""

Bindings=(Name="F4",Command="FreeFlightCamera",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Once that's in, start the game up, enter a mission then hit F4 a few times. That'll scroll through a few camera options, including a free camera and two variations on the third-person camera.

Oh, and I took these two screengrabs just to show you, yes, it works.

Mirror's Edge Third-Person View Activated [gamezine, via Evil Avatar]

Writes Patrick:

"Faith's tattoo design struck me when I watched the E3 2008 trailer, and I knew I wanted to emulate the tattoo. This past summer — prior to the release of Mirror's Edge, I brought an image of Faith's tattoo to a local tattoo artist, and he tattooed a similar design on my right arm. This is my first tattoo. It took 10 hours over three sessions spanning eight weeks to complete. I really enjoy Mirror's Edge but the circuitry design of the tattoo attracted me to it most principally."

For reference purposes, here's Faith and her sleeve.

Patrick adds that he's designing another circuit-board tattoo inspired by the pattern of the subway map in Tokyo, which he'll visit soon. Damn fine tattoo, Patrick.

The console version of Mirror's Edge, released last November for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, may have received overall positive reviews, but multiple complaints marred what could have been the perfect game. Claims of shortness, difficult controls, and the general lack of freedom mingled with more obtuse arguments over the game's perceived innovation, sparking harsh arguments on forums around the internet.

Now Mirror's Edge is finally available for the PC gaming crowd. Let's see how the assembled critics of the internet put this version through its paces.

GameSpot
This is a modern-day iteration of an old-fashioned platformer, in which you're meant to play and replay sequences of jumps, grabs, and slides until you get them perfect, or at least perfect enough to continue. But unlike its ancestors, Mirror's Edge is more about speed and momentum, and when you can connect your moves in a flawless stream of silky movement, it's eminently thrilling and satisfying. Unfortunately, Mirror's Edge has a tendency to trip over its own feet, keeping you slipping and sliding blissfully along, only to have a tedious jumping puzzle or hazy objective put the brakes on.

Eurogamer
On consoles...Up and down were easy to master, but analogue directional control and DICE's reluctance to correct your course - even slightly - often snagged you, or left you to slowly, agonisingly draw yourself over the lip of a roof-edge, or sent you plummeting to your doom and the commiseration of a sympathetic checkpoint. Look down and you could see your feet. Look down and you wouldn't have time to look up again. Thanks to the mouse, not so on the PC. With the sensitivity at a decent level, a decade of twitching guns onto monsters rescues you from misjudgement.

GamersMark
The game falters when it comes to enemy interaction and combat. The enemy AI goes from incredibly unintelligent to tactical-genius in no time at all, though this steep curve can probably be attributed to the game’s five-to-six hour length. Still, it’s jarring when they go from missing you at point-blank range to picking you off from five stories below. Many times it’s best to simply avoid combat and run past the enemies, but the game does force it on you more and more frequently as it progresses. Disarming enemies can be fun, but also unreliable, resulting in needless deaths. And the gunplay itself is loose and unfulfilling, which is a shame since the core mechanics are so inspired.

IGN
With the PC version you do get a few extra features, the majority of which are expected. You can use a mouse and keyboard or Xbox 360 controller for instance, and the former turns out to work pretty well, as we used it to play through the whole game as well as log some decent runs in a few of the time trial modes. There's a standard array of video options such as anti-aliasing, texture and graphics quality, and resolution settings, as well as a toggle for PhysX effects. Turning this on populates the world with flowing banners, billowing plastic and fabric, as well as a number of other flashy effects that most definitely enhance the visual appeal of the world.

VideoGamer
There are times in Mirror's Edge when you'll be frustrated, replaying a section for the umpteenth time with no solution in sight, but persevere; Faith always has a way out - you just have to find it. Combine a thoroughly entertaining single-player campaign with a stunning and challenging time trial mode and you'll soon forget that you managed to run through the story in six hours or less. There's depth here that you'll only discover hours into time trialling a single stage, and as we said, no other game in recent memory comes close to being as cool. We can't wait to see what Faith gets up to next.
Sounds like the keyboard and mouse made a world of difference.