Patrick Söderlund

EA’s creative chief plots a course for the future of games

- Nathan Brown

These days, Patrick Söderlund is EA’s executive vice president of studios, making him the man responsible for all internal game development at one of the largest publishers in the industry. Appointed when Andrew Wilson took over as company CEO in 2013, Söderlund immediately set about a sweeping restructure of the way EA makes games; a process that has led to FIFA being made in DICE’s Frostbite engine, for instance, and to Star Wars Battlefront II being developed by three studios in collaboration. Here, he discusses the challenges in keeping a global set of plates spinning, how to innovate in a company built on annual blockbusters, and where EA will sit in an industry dominated by virtual and augmented reality.

The second EA Play was a success for you. What did you learn from the first year that affected how you set up the second? 

We learned a tonne, to be honest. We learned that the concept of letting players and influencers touch the games we have in development is a good thing. We learned that people were willing to come and see us, which was something we didn’t know for sure. But we also learned that last year’s venue wasn’t right for us. We had some logistical problems that we dealt with this year, and I think we had more stations and more space. We obviously still had longer lines than I wanted; the intent is not for people to stay in line.

What’s the answer to that problem? 

I don’t think it matters what we do. We could limit the amount of people that get to come in and have five times the amount of stations, but I’m not sure that’s viable. But we're extremely happy. We feel like this year was a lot better than last year for us, and we’re getting better feedback from the people that were there, as well.