Actually, make that three new IPs – intellectual properties – a year. That’s what we’re looking at, as EA Games prez, Frank Gibeau tells Gamasutra.com.

Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But for a company as large and as deeply wed to its guaranteed box-shifters as Electronic Arts, three brand new, never-seen-before gaming franchises is probably quite a lot. More so when you consider how much it must cost to produce a game to EA’s (mostly) exacting standards.

“It’s hard to forecast, but I think we’re probably looking at two to three new IPs a year. We’re looking at a three-year SKU plan right now. Between EAP and our internal studios, both of which are in our group, I can safely say it’s at least two to three new IPs.”

So, that’s a bit of reassuring news, we guess – particularly if it means more games along the lines of the excellent Mirror’s Edge. However it most certainly won’t mean an end to EA’s reliance on sequels:

“The degree in level of sequels is going to go up because now you're getting Mass Effect 2, now you're getting Army of Two: 40th Day, you're getting [Battlefield] Bad Company 2.”

“You know, if Dante's Inferno is successful. Dead Space, we're going to have a sequel to that game. So, there's going to be a larger percentage of sequels and blockbusters tied into that mixed, but two to three new IPs is what I feel good about.

In a nutshell, then. Maybe nine brand new blockbuster gaming franchises from EA over the next three years, and sequels and spin-offs for each of them ad infinitum thereafter. Sounds like the EA we all know and love…