Electronic Arts has confirmed that it has halted work on the Command & Conquer themed FPS Tiberium and laid off staff working on the project.
The cancellation was originally announced by Mike Verdu of EA Los Angeles, who said in a memo uncovered by Kotaku, “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the end to all work on Tiberium, effective immediately. I’ve consulted with Nick Earl and Frank Gibeau at the EA Games label and together we have reached the conclusion that given the time and resources remaining, we will not be able to deliver this product to an appropriate level of quality.”
“The game had fundamental design challenges from the start,” he continued. “We fought to correct the issues, but we were not successful; the game just isn’t coming together well enough to meet our own quality expectations as well as those of our consumers.”
The cancellation was confirmed by EA’s Mariam Sughayer, who said, “The game was not on track to meet the high quality standards set by the team and by the EA Games Label. A lower quality game is not in the best interest of the consumers and would not succeed in this market.”
“This is the right move for the studio and the company, but it’s particularly hard for me because of the impact it will have on our people,” Verdu said. “Many individuals contributed their time and talents to this game. I spent time in the trenches with them and I was continually impressed by their work. Moving forward, we need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I believe we are already doing a better job of engineering success in from the start. The quality bar has been raised. Now we need to step up our focus on great design and execution, catching any problems early and correcting them quickly.”
EA did not reveal how many people would be laid off as a result of the decision, but said it would “make every effort to place affected individuals on projects within the studio – and where that isn’t possible, to connect them with opportunities in other teams at EA.” Those that must be released outright will be given severance pay and outplacement support, the company added.
