After rumours arrived last week, EA have officially announced that the next Mirror’s Edge game will be called Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Since the rumours of the new title surfaced last week through NeoGAF, many speculated the sequel to 2008’s success; ‘Mirror’s Edge’ would not be titled Mirror’s Edge 2, as was previously expected.
Today Sara Jansson, Senior Producer on the franchise announced this via a post to the official site:
Two years ago we revealed that we were making a new Mirror’s Edge™. Last year, we gave you a behind the sceneslook into some of the early progress we had made. And though we haven’t said much else in all that time, we have been listening. Thank you for your incredible passion and your patience. I’m excited to tell you that it’s paid off — by this time next week, you will have finally seen more of the game at E3.
Mirror’s Edge has always had a special place in the hearts of all of us at DICE. The first game had a lot of promise. It was unlike anything else in terms of the gameplay and style — it had a unique soul. But as much as we loved that game, we knew it could be more. So that’s what we have set out to do as we introduce Mirror’s Edge to a new generation.
The team has spent a lot of time re-evaluating every aspect of the game and making it a new experience. This is not a sequel, this is not Mirror’s Edge 2. We have landed on a vision that honors the first game — pushing the boundaries of first person movement and diving deeper into the story behind our heroine Faith — but also brings a lot of great new, interesting gameplay and features to the experience for our players.
So on behalf on the entire team here at DICE, we can’t wait to show you what we have been pouring our heart and soul into. We can’t wait to introduce you to Mirror’s Edge™ Catalyst.”
We now know that the next entry to the franchise is not a direct sequel to Mirror’s Edge, however more of a re-boot of the series. From previous footage we have seen, we can expect that Catalyst will build on previous mechanics, and fix those that were executed less successfully. Many have criticised Mirror’s Edge for its combat, which will likely be heavily modified for this release.
We can expect a gameplay demo at the EA E3 2015 press conference this month, after the previous two years of teasers. At the 2013 conference, we received a teaser trailer, and one year on, were given conceptual footage. With the release date rumoured to be next March, we are expecting to have a confirmed date, and more release information at the conference.
Make sure to see the early concept gameplay below:
Update: We have since received box art of the game, from the Amazon listing:
Matt was a regular ICXM contributor in 2015, publishing 110 articles across game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One’s first full year of post-launch coverage, including the early days of Backwards Compatibility and Windows 10 gaming. They post on X as @RTEnvi.