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EA forms 8lb Gorilla studio to focus on cheaper iPhone games

by: Dan -
More On: Zombies & Me
The folks over at TouchArcade scored some exclusive news yesterday that EA would be unleashing their new 8lb Gorilla Studio (dubbed a "micro-studio") to create cheaper AppStore games for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With releases such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour (read our interview with EA mobile about the game here) and Need for Speed Undercover releasing at $9.99 and quickly settling in at $6.99, it appears that EA decided that they needed a studio to go after the $0.99 market that has been dominated by indie developers. The first such release will be Zombies & Me that is slated to hit the AppStore soon.

This is an interesting move by the powerful EA and could have a ripple effect on the AppStore market. The primary benefit being that other traditional software companies (besides Gameloft) may start putting out games at $1.99 or $0.99 at launch, instead of bringing them in around $6.99 and dropping the price slowly. It may also clean up the competition, meaning we could see a reduction in the amount of garbage $0.99 games that have flooded the store. You know, the ones that look like someone half-assed it and threw it out there hoping to sell a couple thousand copies before anyone figured out it was crap. So hopefully EA will use the studio and their vast resources the right way and produce quality games that fill the cheap game market.