Former Shadow of Mordor studio head’s new EA game has an “open world sandbox,” says job listing

Kevin Stephens is the former head of Monolith Productions, best known nowadays for creating Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War. In 2021, Stephens was poached by EA to form a new studio and develop an open world action-adventure game. We don’t even know the name of Stephens’ studio yet, but we now know a skosh more about its first project.

As spotted by Exputer, the studio is hiring a senior game designer of encounters, according to a new job listing. The term “open world” is sprinkled throughout the listing, along with “sandbox.” Specifically, this position will “oversee the creative and technical implementation of encounters [and] systems” and help “populate the world with activities and missions.” EA wants someone who “is ready to push sandbox gameplay and interactive storytelling forward.”

So what does this mean for the people waiting to learn more about this new game? Sandbox games, generally speaking, give the player the tools to tell the story the way they want to. Think of Shadow of Mordor and War’s Nemesis system — boss-level orcs are created based on your encounters with them during regular combat, whether you win, lose, or flee. Whatever this studio is working on, its goal seems to be to create a game that allows that same level of dynamic storytelling. Encounters, systems, activities, and missions are the ways in which the studio is looking to have that story play out.