Today’s announcement that Insomniac and EA Partners have entered into a partnership raises loads of questions. What does this mean for the future of PlayStation exclusives Ratchet & Clank and Resistance? How long has this deal been in the works? Are they ready to give up any details on this mysterious game? To get the answers to these questions and more we talked to Insomniac president and CEO Ted Price and David DeMartini, general manager of EAP.

Ted Price

How long has this deal been in the works?
Ted Price: We certainly have known about each other for a long time, and when we began talking internally about a multi-platform title, we went out and talked to multiple publishers, and we found out that in particular EAP matched us in terms of our desire for quality over quantity. And with their global reach and their expertise in supporting independent developers who own their own IP it seemed like a perfect fit, and so far it’s been fantastic.

David DeMartini: The funny thing about the EAP program is it’s our job to talk with people like Ted all the time. A lot of people ask the question, ‘When did this deal come to fruition?’ We’ve been working on this deal, along with those other deals for years because in the industry it’s all about relationship and about trust. It’s about somebody like Insomniac who has, historically over the last 16 years done great things, trusting you as a partner that you’re going to be able to help them do their next great thing. That kind of trust is not just built instantaneously. That trust is built over a long period of time. I remember the first impression that Ted made on me a while back – this would be a personal interaction, as compared to an impression with the games that his company has been making – we were both on a panel together about four or five years ago. I think I was working on Godfather at the time and Ted was working on one of his franchises. It just really struck me that this was a business leader who has been able to sustain a creative organization with great growth and great health over a long period of time. That’s somebody who, if I was ever in a position to partner with somebody, is somebody that I would want to partner with. Lo and behold, here we are years later with an announcement. These deals take a long time to nurture, then they kind of explode onto the scene with an announcement.

Was there anything in particular behind the timing of this announcement?
Price: Well, we’ve been talking about multi-platform for a while. We have taken a very measured approach to everything we do, and we are at the point in our life-cycle as a company where we can expand to the Xbox 360. Our goal at this point is to reach as many players as possible. We’re certainly excited to bring this game to our fans on the PlayStation 3, but we also want to reach out to Xbox 360 players as well and bring the kind of experiences we’ve been creating for a long time to them.

Are you only working on one game in this deal?
Price: [Yes,] This agreement covers one game.
DeMartini: If you look at everything that Insomniac has ever done, they are creating new universes and new franchises. The deal’s scope that we are talking about today is this first game. The EA Partners program tends to pride itself in, you know, this isn’t about contracts, this is about relationships. We try and earn the business every time we work with a partner, and we’re confident when insomniac delivers the high-quality content that we know they will create in this universe, we will be their partner.

Does EAP have the right of first refusal with future games for this IP?
Price: Our goal is to work with the best partners in the world. We also, as you can tell from our history, have a history of long relationships. So, when we find somebody we like working with, we prefer to continue working with them.