EA Announce Closure Of Visceral Studios & Changes To An Untitled Star Wars Game
In a surprise announcement, EA have announced its closing down its Visceral Studios, which has been creating a brand new Star Wars video game. The title will now be developed by a team from EA Vancouver, that has already been working on the project.
EA are planning on shifting as many of the team from Visceral Studios, as possible to other projects and teams within EA.
The new Star Wars game was originally going to be released in EA’s fiscal year 2019 but now a new timeframe will be announced in the future.
EA’s Patrick Söderlund announced on a EA blog post:
Our industry is evolving faster and more dramatically than ever before. The games we want to play and spend time with, the experiences we want to have in those games, and the way we play…all those things are continually changing. So is the way games are made. In this fast-moving space, we are always focused on creating experiences that our players want to play…and today, that means we’re making a significant change with one of our upcoming titles.
Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe. In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. 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.
Originally this game seemed to be offering a different experience, with the creator of the Uncharted series behind it. However this news does look like the game is possibly turning into a gaming service like Battlefront or Destiny, to give players a reason to keep returning, rather than a strong single player role, which has been EA’s mandate for its new games since they bring in more revenue than traditional games.
What do you think of this news?