Mirror's Edge - Development and Release

Development and Release

In 2007, DICE creative director Ben Cousins told GamesIndustry.biz that the studio was looking to create "something fresh and interesting", anticipating a need to diversify away from the successful Battlefield franchise the studio was known for.

In June 2007, Computer and Video Games magazine revealed that DICE was working on a game called Mirror's Edge, which was expected to "shake up the genre". On July 10, 2007, Mirror's Edge was officially announced by Electronic Arts, and at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in February 2008, the first demonstration of gameplay was shown. A video featuring entirely in-game footage was released at the Sony PlayStation Day in London on May 6, 2008.

The art direction grew out of the gameplay. We wanted to give people a sense of the world very quickly and move through it very quickly. We initially stripped out all of the colors and then just put in red ... I wanted a game where I could look at a screenshot and say, "Hey, that's Mirror's Edge."

Mirror's Edge has a distinct visual style, with the outdoor environments predominantly featuring white and distinctively lacking in green, punctuated by deliberate use of strong primary colours. According to Senior Producer Owen O'Brien, the stylistic choice allows the player to focus on the Runner Vision guidance, as well as serving as a health meter; the colours become less saturated as Faith starts to take damage. Because development of Mirror's Edge began before DICE's own Frostbite was completed, the game uses Epic's Unreal Engine 3. A lighting system called "Beast" was developed for the Unreal Engine by Illuminate Labs in association with DICE. The new software would accentuate the different art style of Mirror's Edge, by allowing for the reflection of colours as well as light. In order to address the issue of simulation sickness associated with the free movement of the camera in first-person view, a small reticle was placed in the centre of the screen. The reticle serves as an aiming and focal point, preventing dizziness in similar fashion to the dance technique called spotting. Aside from this reticle (which can be hidden by the player), no heads-up display exists in the game.

The demo for Mirror's Edge, consisting of the game's prologue chapter, was released via the PlayStation Store on October 30, 2008, followed by the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on October 31. On November 7, 2008, DICE announced that Mirror's Edge had achieved gold status, and PS3 and Xbox 360 versions would be shipping to retailers on November 13. On January 16, 2009, a Microsoft Windows version of the game was released. The PC version features support for NVIDIA's PhysX, adding detail and physics to glass, smoke and soft materials. The game includes the SecuROM v7.x (activation based) DRM software, unless bought from Steam.

The game is at the centre of EA's conflict with EDGE Games, a California-based development studio. EDGE Games is not related to Edge magazine beyond the licensing of its trademark. In September 2009, EA petitioned to have EDGE Games' trademarks cancelled, alleging continued threats of legal action. Tim Langdell, president of EDGE responded by accusing EA of engaging EDGE in settlement talks as a "play for time". Langdell's company claimed true legal ownership of the phrase "Mirror's Edge" among other variations of "Edge".