A new report in Variety claims that the "secret" Blueprint division at Electronic Arts is being closed as part of the publisher's latest round of cuts, which are estimated to save EA about $50 million. All staff involved with Blueprint (an estimated dozen) were either laid off, quit or moved on to other projects at EA.
Although EA never officially introduced Blueprint, former EA executive Neil Young formed the group in mid-2007 in order to incubate new ideas that could be spread across multiple media – in fact, Variety says it was initially labeled Transmedia. After Young left to found mobile company ngmoco, Louis Castle took over, but now he's transitioned into another role at EALA.
A former Blueprint employee told Variety that the group was going to change the development process by having people work outside EA offices, thereby lowering overall costs: "Using distributed people and leveraging technology in a significant way would allow us to break the high-priced model of game development where everybody is on sight, hired as a full-time regular employee."
Apparently this model of development is now being applied to a Boom Blox sequel (EA has yet to officially announce Boom Blox 2). The game is being handled by EALA, but people from around the world are working on it. "Everybody is integrated, regardless of whether they're in the same physical location," the former Blueprint staffer said. "It's truly the spirit of what Blueprint was going to be."
