“EA looks at the top 20 developers in the world and we try to sign anything those guys are working on,” DeMartini told MTV Multiplayer.
DeMartini’s comments follow last month’s news that EA Partners had signed a publishing agreement with Japan's Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio behind cult titles Killer 7 and No More Heroes, for a new action horror game.
“Hopefully this will serve as a springboard to a successful formula that we can apply to some of the other great Japanese designers,” DeMartini said of the Grasshopper deal.
Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald recently questioned the viability of such publishing deals, suggesting they weren’t necessarily a good thing for EA investors. Greenwald said he was "concerned to see how much top-line growth is coming from low-margin distribution deals out of EA Partners”, and that these kind of partnerships "speak to EA's marketing and publishing strengths” but don’t “say much for their development talent”.
However, DeMartini certainly feels there’s value in partnering with star developers and less well known talent that could potentially hit the big time.
“You’re betting on some people that are kind of in the high minor leagues that you hope are going to break into the major leagues,” he said. “You’re signing a couple of superstars that have already arrived. And you’re very much trying to build a franchise with a portfolio approach.”