Castaway confirms that deal with Electronic Arts is history

Last week, Castaway Entertainment, the development studio founded by a number of former Blizzard North staffers in July 2003, announced a new hire. Not surprisingly, the hire--Rick Seis, now the technical director at Castaway--is a Blizzard North alum who played a significant role in the development of Diablo and Diablo II. Seis was lead programmer on Diablo II as well as that studio's technical director.

Buried in the announcement, however, was a mention that the studio was "looking for a publishing partner to bring this high quality game to the shelves." That hint of a change to the previously inked deal with EA Partners was first highlighted by game news site GameCloud.

Today, Castaway cofounder and vice president Stefan Scandizzo confirmed that the agreement between the two parties was no longer in effect. "EA Partners and Castaway have gone our separate ways," Scandizzo told GameSpot this morning.

The agreement that would have seen EAP publish Castaway's action role-playing game was officially terminated on February 1, 2005, according to Scandizzo. "EAP decided it was taking too many shots at too many different projects." The EA division has been responsible for a number of high-profile projects, including Batman Begins from developer Eurocom and the Battlefield series from developer Digital Illusions. It has also gone through a number of significant changes in the past year, notably the departure of lead biz-dev strategist Greg Richardson, who left EA shortly before the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

As a result of the division's new, post-Richardson strategy, according to Scandizzo, Castaway was one of many previously signed EAP studios that are no longer aligned with the EA division.

Scandizzo says the studio, which now counts about 20 staffers on the payroll, is still intent on bringing its fantasy-based title to market. He added that the newfound freedom has its upside. "Because we were on a fixed schedule [with EAP], it didn't leave a lot of room for experimentation." The designers' approach to the game has "changed dramatically," Scandizzo said.

As for the game's likely release date, Scandizzo now targets early 2007, though he said that was an optimistic outlook. The company still needs to locate a publishing partner. After that, Scandizzo sees another 18 to 24 months of work before the game could be ready for release.