Frank Gibeau, label president of EA Games

In Part I of our Q&A with Electronic Arts' Frank Gibeau, label president for EA Games, we talked about his priorities for the new division, where licensed products fit into his strategy, and how he planned to take on Activision/Infinity Ward and their Call of Duty franchise. In the second and final part of our interview, we discuss whether EA may have too many shooters in its pipeline, how the company can thrive under the long shadows cast by Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV, and what his intentions are towards the Wii given the announcement of a separate EA Casual division.

Coming back to Call of Duty--sorry, to Medal of Honor; your competition at Infinity Ward is not doing a World War II game this year--is there a potential of World War II fatigue setting in amongst the audience. There's been a lot of derision aimed at Midway's World War II entry, Hour of Victory. How do you combat that with Airborne? Can you capture the innovation that you're talking about in Medal of Honor: Airborne in a thirty-second spot, and is that enough? What do you need to do to signal to people that this is something different, that it's worth their time and money, that it's not just another World War II game?

Again, it comes down to the gameplay innovation, right? The category gets tired when the games start to feel all the same. With regards to Medal of Honor, the focus on the airborne jump and the ability to land anywhere in the level, we believe sets it up for some innovative and addictive game play that feels fresh. If it felt like prior Medal of Honors or felt like, you know, the Ubi game or the Midway game or even Call of Duty we wouldn't be successful and it would feel like another tired entry.

Our bet is on innovating in the gameplay by giving you a different way to play. Whenever we look at a category, we definitely think about concept, but we also know that you have to nail the tech, you have nail the game play and you need to nail the concept in order to get a hit. When you just nail one or the other, you end up being one of the pack, and this is a category that, frankly, needs some innovation and some new thinking. Our hope with Airborne is that by allowing you to start anywhere and to play the game out that way, we've uncovered something that will make the brand feel fresh again.

With the sheer number of shooters that you guys have coming out this year--first- and third-person; internal to EA, and from EA Partners--is it starting to feel like you guys have a bunch of your own pit bulls amped up for a fight with one another? How do you distinguish among all those games?

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