EA Blueprint Shelved, Boom Blox 2 Confirmed News

Variety is reporting that the doors have been shut to EA's ultra-secretive 'Blueprint' project, before the venture really had the time to get off the ground.

EA Blueprint was originally conceived by Neil Young in 2007 to reduce the risk of game development and new IPs by designing creative prototypes and emphasising distributed development; effectively allowing smaller teams to come up with new ideas that would ultimately be passed onto full development at external developers, whilst EA retained some level of control. 

The three title agreement with Steven Spielberg originally fell under this umbrella, along with a deal with Armature, a studio comprising former members of Retro Studios.

Following Young's departure from EA earlier in the year however, responsibility fell to Westwood Studios co-founder Louis Castle, but it appears the lack of a clear direction since has ultimately left the initiative to run out of steam.

Despite the premature closure, Variety reports that one title in development is retaining the EA Blueprint methodology, namely Boom Blox 2.  "Everybody is integrated, regardless of whether they're in the same physical location," explained the insider when speaking about the sequel. "It's truly the spirit of what Blueprint was going to be."