EA admits Spielberg project has been cancelled

EA has ended years of speculation about its project LMNO, officially confirming that the Steven Spielberg collaboration has been canned for good, although the company plans to maintain a relationship with the film director.

The announcement came in response to a question from Joystiq, after ex-EA dev Jake Kazdal spoke about the game's cancellation on podcast 8-4 Play. Kazdal previously worked on the title before leaving EA to form Haunted Temple studios.

Speaking on the podcast, Kazdal intimated that the project's failure could well have been a result of internal bickering at EA.

"I don't know exactly what was the thing that made it fall apart. I'm sure anybody you ask is gonna tell you something a little bit different, but it didn't end up ever taking off," Kazdal told listeners.

"There was some rival game stuff that may or may not have come out of EA that was basically the same thing minus some of the stuff we were doing. There was just a lot of politics."

The Spielberg project was supposedly focused around the concept of hyper-realistic facial capture and graphics, although much of the game remained shrouded in secrecy. Rumours had circulated over the game's status for a number of years, but each time EA denied the claims.

Originally, Spielberg had signed on with EA for a four game deal in 2005, but the only titles to have seen the light of day thus far are Wii physics puzzler Boom Blox and its sequel.