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Another one bites the dust- Visceral Games shut down by EA

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EA shutting down Visceral Games, overhauling Star Wars game
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I’ve got a bad feeling about this...
by Michael McWhertor@MikeMcWhertor Oct 17, 2017, 3:19pm EDT
Visceral_Star_Wars_Game_EA.0.jpg
Visceral Games/Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts is shutting down its Visceral Games studio and making major changes to the team’s in-development Star Wars project, EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund announced today.

Visceral has been working on an action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe in some form since 2013, when EA and Disney announced a multi-year game deal. It’s been described as a “story-based, linear adventure” in the style of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series, but based on comments from Söderlund, EA is making a “significant change” to that title.

“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,” Söderlund said. “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. We will maintain the stunning visuals, authenticity in the Star Wars universe, and focus on bringing a Star Wars story to life. Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.”

As part of that “pivot,” EA is delaying the game. It was originally slated to launch late in EA's 2019 fiscal year, which runs from April 2018 through March 2019, but it has been pushed back indefinitely.

The change in Visceral’s Star Wars project will have an even bigger impact on the people working at the studio. EA is closing Visceral Games, and other EA studios will take over development on the Star Wars title.

“A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development of this game, led by a team from EA Vancouver that has already been working on the project,” Söderlund said. “Our Visceral studio will be ramping down and closing, and we’re in the midst of shifting as many of the team as possible to other projects and teams at EA.”

Since announcing that Visceral was one of the internal studios working on a Star Wars game, Electronic Arts has offered little in the way of detail about the project. EA and Visceral announced that former Naughty Dog creative director Amy Hennig was working on the title, co-writing the Star Wars adventure with Todd Stashwick. EA showed only a brief glimpse of the game at E3 2016.

EA’s next Star Wars title hits in November. DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 is in development for PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. Titanfall developer Respawn is also working on a Star Wars game for EA.

Developing...
 
Never liked any of these games.
 
Who gives a fuck?

Visceral Games has put out one good title (Dead Space) and the rest has been shit. If you really want to be generous, you can give it two for Dante's Inferno.

Battlefield Hardline is the worst BF title ever.

Good riddance.
 
Who gives a fuck?

Visceral Games has put out one good title (Dead Space) and the rest has been shit. If you really want to be generous, you can give it two for Dante's Inferno.

Battlefield Hardline is the worst BF title ever.

Good riddance.
Hardline was balls, but I think the first two deadspace titles were good. Looking at their catalogue, yeah, mostly shit.
 
Hardline was balls, but I think the first two deadspace titles were good. Looking at their catalogue, yeah, mostly shit.
I liked one, thought 2 was okay. 3 was pure shit. Dante's Inferno was okay, everything else has been shit shit shit. No doubt they'd have fucked up a Star Wars game too.
 
I liked one, thought 2 was okay. 3 was pure shit. Dante's Inferno was okay, everything else has been shit shit shit. No doubt they'd have fucked up a Star Wars game too.
I think EA took a peak at it, realized it was going to be garbage, and now they're revamping.
 
Gotta agree with @Man Called X .. who gives a fuck?

There's no details as to the reasoning other than it seems the project got away from the developers and they had no choice but to make drastic changes.

Kinda like .. so what??
 
Needs paid loot crates. I miss the game Star Wars Galaxies.
 
Gotta agree with @Man Called X .. who gives a fuck?

There's no details as to the reasoning other than it seems the project got away from the developers and they had no choice but to make drastic changes.

Kinda like .. so what??
It's because of EAs past of acquiring and shutting down studios.
 
The Uncharted games have been pretty wildly successful, though, haven't they? Those are about the most linear single-player games there are. I know those titles have multi-player as well, but the single-player is clearly the showcase there.

I think the problem is more that EA's linear single-player games aren't that good.
I think uncharted might be an outlier. Also, it has a thriving multiplayer with microtransactions. I think it meant single player only games; which uncharted certainly isn't.
 
I knew that linear games were on the way out when Metal Gear 5 came out. If that type of game found a way to become nonlinear and still be great, then everything else was going to follow.

IT SEEMS that pretty much all the top games now are nonlinear.
I'm still upset with that game because they quite clearly cut out an entire section of the game. I also don't think the open world really did that game favors other than having large filler. They recognized where things are going though, but I think it's the most flawed game in the series.
 

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