EA closes "secret" Blueprint division

19 November 2008 18:09 GMT / By Verity Burns

Just a few weeks after shutting down its Casual Label, EA has reportedly closed down its Blueprint division too, an area of the business supposedly also working on casual-orientated games.

Blueprint has never been officially announced by EA, but a former employee has lifted the lid on it, telling everything they know to website Variety, including the division's involvement with Steven Spielberg's gaming projects.

"Some people called it a project, some a division, others just a collection of games, but whatever it was, EA never officially announced it," said the source

"Blueprint was intended to be a new way to develop fresh properties across multiple media. In fact, it was originally called Transmedia internally before adopting the name Blueprint.

"In addition to its charter to work on new stuff, Blueprint also got ownership of several existing projects at EA, most notably the three games being developed by Steven Spielberg."

The source also reports there were around 12 people working within Blueprint, with a mission to change the development process so people could work from disparate locations rather than necessarily at an EA studio.

This model is supposedly being used on Boom Blox 2, the sequel to Steven Spielberg's Wii puzzle game released earlier this year, which is not affected by the closure.

However, the 12 people that were employed by the division have reportedly either been laid off or moved to new roles within EALA.

The site added: "The division was never officially killed. Its games are still ongoing. But with nobody working for Blueprint anymore, it simply doesn't exist."

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