EA Closes Dead Space Studio Visceral Games, Will Retool Their Star Wars Game

By Chris Compendio  |  October 17, 2017 | 4:05pm
Images via EA/YouTube, EA
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EA Closes Dead Space Studio Visceral Games, Will Retool Their Star Wars Game

We’ve been wondering where the Star Wars game from EA’s Dead Space studio, Visceral Games, was. Today, EA provided an unfortunate status update on the project, and revealed the fate of Visceral. The studio will be “ramping down and closing,” with the Star Wars game being moved to a different team from EA.

In a statement on their website, EA said that the “story-based, linear adventure game” will be adjusted, after listening to player feedback 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. 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.

What exactly this all entails, and what these “fundamental shifts” were in the evolving videogame industry that inspired this large, creative shift was not made clear from the publisher. Hopefully, they aren’t just talking about loot boxes.

The game was under the direction of Amy Hennig, formerly of Naughty Dog, who contributed to the Jak and Daxter series and had a large role writing and directing the first three Uncharted games, before departing the company during development of Uncharted 4. Before its untimely demise, Visceral (originally EA Redwood Shores) developed the Dead Space games, Dante’s Inferno and Battlefield Hardline. According to EA’s statement, Visceral team members will be shifted and moved to other projects and teams within EA.

There is still no word on when this mysterious Star Wars game will release or what it is about, but we knew little in the first place. Check out the original first look of the game in the video below—though with today’s news, this video hasn’t particularly aged well.

EA’s next Star Wars game is Battlefront II, releasing Nov. 17. Check out our thoughts on the multiplayer beta here.

 
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