Known for their outer space sci-fi horror series Dead Space, Visceral Games studio has been one that seemed to have a lot of promise, and potential with the series. They were eventually moved on to work on titles such as Battlefield: Hardline, Dante’s Inferno, and an unreleased Star Wars title, which would be something along the lines as the Uncharted series. However, according to EA’s Vice President Patrick Söderlund, the studio is being closed down.
It comes after years of silence from the studios front. They’ve been hard at work since 2013 on the Star Wars project in cooperation with EA and Disney. Sadly, EA has also announced the game is being delayed, and it very well could see “significant changes” before its launch sometime after 2019. You can read Söderlund’s full statement below.
“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.
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.”
Unfortunately, the game is being moved over to other EA studios, which will see the game through until its release. While the members of the team are being moved around, it brings uncertain doubt to the future of titles such as the critically acclaimed Dead Space franchise.
“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. 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.”
When the Star Wars title was announced, EA and Visceral had announced that former Uncharted and Naughty Dog director Amy Hennig had joined the team tow ork on the title, and would be co-writing the title with Todd Stashwick. Unfortunately, we were only given a glimpse of the game during last years E3 stage presentation.
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, but has not released any information retaining as to what Respawn’s upcoming title will be about or how the game will play.
It is a shame to see that Visceral is being closed down and that the Dead Space series could truly be over starting as of today.
[Source: EA]
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Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, anime, gaming, and pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.