On the road to E3 2019, it looked like the show was going to be a little starved for content. While there was certainly plenty of news (and it’s still going on!), one look at the floor plans and you’ll see why folks were worried. Another sign was the introduction of panels featuring properties like The Simpsons, which had no sign of video game content. While that one mobile game that makes a bajillion dollars did get some new content announcements, no further news really happened. However, an interesting nugget from the panel did reveal EA once tried to throw a little party with America’s First Family, Mario Party–style.
If you want, you can check out the whole panel above, which features several writers and producers from The Simpsons. The topic was indeed video games, and the conversation goes to some fun places regarding the sordid past of licensed Simpsons video games. One interesting tidbit stood out, and has been making the internet rounds because, well, cancelled games are always a fascinating topic.
According to the folks on the panel, EA was once trying to get a Simpsons party game off the ground. It was designed to be a competitor to Mario Party, Nintendo’s long-running board game/minigame series that has been successful despite consistent waves of lukewarm reviews. According to producers Matt Selman and J. Stewart Burns, this Simpsons video game bash would have had 20 minigames, although we didn’t really get any examples.
Ultimately, it seems like the team wasn’t able to get that Mario Party magic going, as based on whatever work did get done Burns stated each mini game could have taken a year to develop. Ultimately EA canned the project, but according to Selman, the Simpsons creative folks involved still got to collect a paycheck. Ah, the wild world of licensing deals.
