“We had, frankly, too much capacity inside of our EA Partners team to handle more projects than we were in position to want to have right now. That was what was the scaling back of it was. But Partners is open for business,” stated Gibeau.

As for rumours that the program might be in danger of closing down, he stated that, “I don’t think the communication of that has been particularly well executed on our part.

“We are absolutely open for business to partner with developers out there. In fact on mobile, as an example, with our Chillingo team, we just published three games this week.

“On the console front, honestly, when you’re in a transition, you tend to focus in on your internal titles and put must of your attention there and most of your capital to make sure you get your studios positioned and configured for that. So we’re definitely looking to do that.”

EA Partners is a co-publishing arm of the giant which lends itself to publishing and distributing games from third party developers. This has included developers such Grasshopper Manufacture, Harmonix, Epic Games and Crytek. It will be showcasing Respawn Entertainment’s TitanFall this week at E3 2013.

Source: GamesIndustry International

EA Partners which is a publishing arm of EA, and have been instrumental in securing contracts with independent developers may be closing, GameInformer has reported.

Games like Shadow of the Damned were published using that but failed to find commercial success due to marketing issues. It’s a great thing for independent developers but as a publishing platform it hasn’t had a lot of success.

John Riccitiello resigned from EA and it seems the new management doesn’t want to publish third-party games anymore.

It is said that Respawn Entertainment’s game and Insomniac Games’ Fuse, won’t be affected by this move.

EA’s earnings call for FY 2013 is on May 7th so we will have more details then probably. Take it as a rumour for now. Valve’s Portal 2 was also published using EA Partners on consoles.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Klei Entertainment and EA Partners have announced that the 2D action brawler, Shank 2, will be available on the Xbox Live Arcade and on the PlayStation Network Europe on February 8, 2012 for 800 Microsoft Points or £7.99 respectively.

Here’s some info on the game as given by the devs:

Set in a pulp fiction world, Shank 2 puts players back in control of their favorite ex-mobster hitman, Shank. Klei has evolved the combat experience with precise controls, new weapons, smarter enemies, and more advanced combo techniques, all set to the backdrop of beautiful 2D art and animation. Players can put Shank’s trusty arsenal of handguns, chainsaws, grenades, plus all-new weapons to use in order to protect those close to him.

Introducing an all-new Survival Mode, gamers can team up with a friend online or locally, working together to take down hordes of goons in an action-packed, arcade-style brawl. Featuring stunning visuals from Klei’s veteran cartoon director, Jeff Agala, Shank 2 raises the bar even higher for 2D brawlers with art and animation that won Klei multiple awards and nominations, including IGF’s Excellence in Visual Arts nomination, and the Canadian Animator of the Year award for Klei’s lead animator, Aaron Bouthillier.