R.I.P. Visceral - The EA Cycle Continues

[Patticus]

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EA is shutting down Visceral Games, the studio behind games like Battlefield Hardline and Dead Space, the publisher said today. The Star Wars game in development at Visceral will be revamped and move to a different studio, EA says, although it will now be something completely different.

“Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe,” EA’s Patrick Söderlund said in a blog post. “In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design.”

https://kotaku.com/ea-shuts-down-visceral-games-1819623990?IR=T

Amy Hennig's Star Wars game to become a Destiny-esque online loot crate-based multiplayer bullshitfest, confirmed.

Fucking EA, killing off perfectly good studios, just because their quota of AAA titles couldn't be fulfilled (or some other equally crappy excuse).

That said, if you look at Visceral's somewhat pedestrian output post-Dead Space 2, EA's decision may be understandable. But even then, the team still had a fantastic reputation, and I'm not at all convinced that offing them is anything other than a horrible decision.
 

There's a fucking good reason why Star Wars games like KotOR 1 & 2 still live large in the memories of gamers: They love singleplayer adventures with great stories and characters, and they want to feel like they are in a Star Wars movie. You can only get so much of that while playing predominantly online multiplayer games like Battlefront or Destiny. This is why Amy Hennig's Star Wars game was such an exciting prospect for so many people - the promise of a return to the great singleplayer Star Wars games of old. Now, sadly, it seems like it'll more than likely get the Destiny treatment, leaving franchise fans bereft for yet another gaming generation of a truly memorable new Star Wars story.

Fuck EA.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Patticus
More suitable image found.

[KHCast]

relevant. From 2 years ago. The fact this is a traceable pattern is disgusting. Fuck off EA

[Forte-Metallix]

This pretty much sums up any time EA acquires a new studio:

[Polkadi~☆]

Ooh-hoo-hoo... Nice moves, EA. You totally didn't lose respect again.

I really really really hope Respawn Entertainment aren't owned by EA, that would hurt me so much.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I honestly thought this had happened years ago.

[Balding Spider]

I know wishing that Dead Space would've come and dismissed 3 as some sort of prophetic dream and steer the series toward greatness was a long shot. But I had hope. Was it so wrong to hope.

Fuck EA They're Galactus, Pyron, The Anti-Monitor and Unicron all rolled into a single entity devouring creativity, and jobs.

[Cayenne]

Man, I used to love EA so much in the fourth and sixth video game console generations. It's very, very sad to see what kind of trash this company is now.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

42 minutes ago, Night on Balding Mountain said:

I know wishing that Dead Space would've come and dismissed 3 as some sort of prophetic dream and steer the series toward greatness was a long shot. But I had hope. Was it so wrong to hope.

Fuck EA They're Galactus, Pyron, The Anti-Monitor and Unicron all rolled into a single entity devouring creativity, and jobs.

Galactus is a life giver now so you can leave him out. Also this was an internal studio not an acquired one fyi

[Remy]

3 hours ago, Patticus said:

“In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design.”

Did they shit themselves after Prey and TEW2 bombed (relatively badly) this year? It's kind of double sad when looking at Dead Space 3- I feel like the "pivot" to co-op there annihilated a really dope series. Dead Space 2 was awesome. Visceral were a cool studio. Sad to see everyone lose their jobs over this.

GaaS seems like it's going to be the deathknell for oldschool singleplayer games. Businesses don't seem interested in something they can't keep people hooked on with post release support and a loot grind 

[KHCast]

Jim addressed the closure. Not surprised 

[Shiguy]

4 hours ago, Forterror-Metallix said:

This pretty much sums up any time EA acquires a new studio

Nah I say this is more them

[Gabz Girl]

Shit shit SHIT!! ><

I was gutted when I first read about this a few days ago and I still am now. Visceral Games was awesome, I loved the Dead Space series (never played 3 though) and they seemed to be the most unique of out of all the Studios EA owned. To see them get shuttered frustrates me so much, I hope we get some details soon on why this happened. I’m guessing development troubles? 

Btw, can I just say how pissed off I am that EA owns the Star Wars video game rights. They’ve had these rights since 2013 and all they’ve got to show for it are two Battlefront games! Wtf is taking them so long to release some great single player Star Wars games? Come on! 

Oh right, they cancelled this one. Or at least, the one helmed by Visceral Games and Amy Hennig. >=/