EA Is Coming For Your Developers, Japan

Lock up your developers, Japanese publishers. Your daughters are fine, but EA is about to come knockin', snatching away your best local talent for its EA Partners program. The mega-publisher announced last month that it had signed Grasshopper Manufacture by way of Q Entertainment for an upcoming horror game, adding the developer to a stable that includes Valve, id Software, Epic Games and People Can Fly. According to an MTV Multiplayer discussion with EA Partners group general manager David DeMartini, Suda51 and Shinji Mikami aren't the only Japanese talent the pub has its eye on.See there's a board — a secret board — at EAP with names of good "gets" from all over the globe. DeMartini tells MTV that "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess who might be on the board or who might not be on the board," noting that "EA looks at the top 20 developers in the world and we try to sign anything those guys are working on." The goal with Grasshopper, apparently, is to bring the developer from the minor leagues — a hit with critics and the Insert Credit crowd — to the majors, shifting millions of units, not tens of thousands. Even Mikami said it's all about the money. For speculation on who else might be on the board — folks like Hideo Kojima — venture forth for the full piece. EA Wants To Sign More Japanese Developers, Teases Board Covered In Secret Plans [MTV Multiplayer]