Another one bites the dust - Visceral Games

Thanks EA. You did it again.



Fuuuuuuuck you!

I find it funny that people are pissed that EA closed down Visceral as if it was some great studio. It was created in 1998 by EA (as EA Redwood Shores) to work on branded games (like movie ties-in), renamed to Visceral in 2009 (along other EA studios) and was in borrowed time since 2011 when Visceral Australia (and later in 2013 Visceral Montréal) were closed down. Their only recognizable games is the Dead Space series…which ended with a financial flop.

They have been working on that SW game since 2013 and they had nothing to show for it 4 years later. Looks to me like EA decided they wasted enough money on them.

I'm personally not too surprised by this though and I expect more layoff this year from EA (and Ubisoft). mid-2016/2017 were an awful period for AAA games that aren't GaaS (game as a service) and going by how financial analysts are saying that GaaS is the future and the only thing making money, don't expect anything else form the big publishers from now on.

Funny enough, going by SWTOR, EA has no idea how to manage a GaaS game* which means they are going straight toward utter failure.

*They cut funding because they aren't hitting high enough revenue because they can't keep people around for lack of new content making sure they can't keep players around because they can't make new content.

azarhal said:

I find it funny that people are pissed that EA closed down Visceral as if it was some great studio. It was created in 1998 by EA (as EA Redwood Shores) to work on branded games (like movie ties-in), renamed to Visceral in 2009 (along other EA studios) and was in borrowed time since 2011 when Visceral Australia (and later in 2013 Visceral Montréal) were closed down. Their only recognizable games is the Dead Space series…which ended with a financial flop.

They have been working on that SW game since 2013 and they had nothing to show for it 4 years later. Looks to me like EA decided they wasted enough money on them.

I'm personally not too surprised by this though and I expect more layoff this year from EA (and Ubisoft). mid-2016/2017 were an awful period for AAA games that aren't GaaS (game as a service) and going by how financial analysts are saying that GaaS is the future and the only thing making money, don't expect anything else form the big publishers from now on.

Funny enough, going by SWTOR, EA has no idea how to manage a GaaS game* which means they are going straight toward utter failure.

*They cut funding because they aren't hitting high enough revenue because they can't keep people around for lack of new content making sure they can't keep players around because they can't make new content.

Click to expand...

Dead Space 1 and 2 were amazing games, and a result of what they could achieve without too much interference or unreasonable sales expectations. The reason Dead Space 3 was a financial flop was because of expectations from EA. When they expect a survival horror game to do as good as their mainstream series, you start off on the wrong foot. And Dead Space 3 was as far removed from a survival horror game that it's not even funny. When the publisher interferes with the creative direction and introduces shitty ideas like co-op in a horror game, or micro-transactions to purchase in-game resources, you can also expect that the niche fans to be put off.



EDIT:

Also found this thread on neogaf.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1449434

If this is again a result of needing to spend that much money on marketing vs how much it costs to actually make the game, this is again a very management decision imo. And the reason they're spending abnormal amounts of money (relative to the game development costs) is because they want a return on their investment on release day. EA has no patience for the game to garner renown and slowly work up to being universally acclaimed. They need to make the money back pronto. Because they run everything as ruthlessly as possible. No long-time invests for them. Even though they're as big as fuck and could easily withstand having a bunch of niche games.

azarhal said:

I find it funny that people are pissed that EA closed down Visceral as if it was some great studio. It was created in 1998 by EA (as EA Redwood Shores) to work on branded games (like movie ties-in), renamed to Visceral in 2009 (along other EA studios) and was in borrowed time since 2011 when Visceral Australia (and later in 2013 Visceral Montréal) were closed down. Their only recognizable games is the Dead Space series…which ended with a financial flop.

They have been working on that SW game since 2013 and they had nothing to show for it 4 years later. Looks to me like EA decided they wasted enough money on them.

Click to expand...

Yet EA is still wasting money on Bioware who hasn't made a really good game in a very long time. I enjoyed Dead Space 1&2 more than anything Bioware has put out in almost a decade.

Dead Space 3 was a flop because they tried to shoehorn multiplayer and microtransactions into it, and a lot of people were disappointed by that. It's almost a sure thing though that those decisions were made by EA and not the development team.

http://www.pcgamer.com/visceral-games-closes-ea-changes-direction-of-studios-star-wars-game/

"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."

Click to expand...

That engine doesn't support hairworks.

Anyway, about EA studio being shut down, any studio, I don't care any more. Better to lay off talented people so they work on actual games in other studios then jail them to develop phonegames and MMOs.