It’s always a sad thing when a video game studio has to close its doors. It happened last year with Lionhead Studios, which was shut down by Microsoft, while the Fable sequel it was working on was cancelled.
And now Electronic Arts has revealed on their website that Visceral Games is to be shut down by EA. This might be shocking to some as Visceral was behind some pretty good games like The Godfather, Everything or Nothing and, of course, 2008’s brilliant Dead Space. These games were released during the studio’s almost 20 year lifespan (it was founded back in 1998 as EA Redwood Shores).
Also, many people were eagerly awaiting Visceral’s upcoming Star Wars game, a game said to be based on the cancelled Star Wars 1313, and which was being developed by talented veterans like Amy Hennig, who was creative director at Uncharted studio Naughty Dog.
But as a result of Visceral Games’ demise, EA will now be making changes to this Star Wars game. The publisher explained the reasons behind this on their website, stating that “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”.
However, the company says the game’s stunning visuals and authenticity won’t be affected, but that it is “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”.
Also, EA Vancouver and other studios will bear the brunt of the game’s development from now on. Thankfully, though, the talented folks at Visceral Games will be shifted to “other projects and teams at EA” according to the company. It seems this might not be the case with Naughty Dog veteran Amy Hennig, who apparently will be departing EA’s grounds in the near future according to Polygon.
And while Visceral’s Star Wars game was scheduled to launch in late 2018 or early 2019, the game’s release date has now been put on hold indefinitely, which is something that may annoy those who were eagerly awaiting this Star Wars game. It would be a great thing, then, if this promising Star Wars game saw the light of day in the near future, so here’s hoping we get to play this Star Wars adventure sooner rather than later.
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