Get creative, get dropped

​It's a sad day for parkour-inspired video game fans everywhere, as it would appear Electronic Arts has moved further development of Mirror's Edge 2 all the way to the far back burner.

 

While EA holds that the IP may not be finished just yet, it looks like the follow-up to 2009's flawed but exhilarating gem may never see the light of day. It's a shame, considering how few games are willing to take risks these days. As a first-person platforming title with few firearms and no sign of a space marine, Mirror's Edge did exactly that.

 

Eurogamer Sweden recently translated a report from Press 2 Play TV, breaking the news that a small team at DICE showed EA a prototype for Mirror's Edge 2, only to be declined.

 

According to the report, EA's Patrick Soderlund was quoted as saying the original Mirror's Edge did not meet sales expectations, a big deciding factor in the stoppage of a sequel.

 

It was confirmed last summer that a small team at DICE was still working on Mirror's Edge 2 but have since been shifted to work on another project. With Battlefield 3 on the horizon, it's a pretty safe guess as to where the ME2 team was relocated.

 

Sunderlund was further quoted as saying the IP has not been "buried" and that EA would talk about it "when we're ready to talk about it."

 

Lovely.

 

Even more upsetting are the sentiments stated by EA Games boss Frank Gibeau, who said the original Mirror's Edge was hampered by problems with the learning curve, difficulty, narrative and a lack of multiplayer. All we heard was: It wasn't a military FPS that rewards you every few minutes for being good at pulling the trigger.

 

Mirror's Edge had its problems, sure, but they were exactly the types of things you expect to see improved upon in a sequel. The chances of ever seeing that sequel, sadly, are looking pretty slim.