EA Shuts Down Visceral Studios

[JRPGfan]

Nuvendil said:

twintail said:

yeah maybe... perhaps.

 I think the reality of the situation is that Visceral hasnt really made money for EA since 2011 with Dead Space 2 (which apparently might not have actually made profit, or at least not enough to be highly successful) and everything since has kind of just been mediocre from this studio. And development of this SW game clearly wasnt up to scratch. Henning with UC4 was suffering problems too until ND pivoted there as well. 

Who knows ultimately what has led to Visceral being closed down but they are moving the staff and resources to another studio so its not like this game or the employees as a whole are gone. 

It sucks. 

No there's little doubt Dead Space and Dead Space 2 made profit.  But they didn't want *profit*.  They wanted a cross-medium super hit with movies and comic books and massive blockbuster video games.  Dead Space 1 and 2 got enough sales to sustain them considering the production values.  

But of course, a horror game didn't turn out to be the biggest thing in media since the invention of film so EA had them make Dead Space 3 with a host of apparently corporate mandated nonsense designed to shove in microtransactions and burdened it with selling 5 million copies.  Basically, after Dead Space 2 EA didn't want them doing what they were *good* at.  They shoved them into making what EA *wanted*.  And when what EA wanted turned out to be mediocre garbage, well this is where it goes.

The pattern of behavior is so transparent as to be cartoon-villain-esque.  And the only word we have on this "not up to scratch" nonsense is EA.  Who tellingly don't even say that.  They basically say, "it's a linear story driven game, we don't want that."  Probably because they want a pseudo-sandbox online shooter with lootboxes cause they are once again envying other companies' money and wanting THAT instead of focusing on what they HAVE.  Cause that's what EA does, they chase whatever goldrush they see real or immagined and damn the consequences.  Like when Medal of Honor was turned into a series of blatant CoD ripoffs in a desparate attempt to take CoD's marekt, all mediocre, all souless, all disappointing.  And the end result was the studio behind the franchise was closed.  

Maxis
Mythic
Bullfrog
Origin
Westwood
Dreamworks Interactive/Danger Close
Phenomic
Black Box Games
Pandemic
Visceral

And on and on.  EA is a company that buys or builds studios, let's them do their thing temporarily, and then beats them into submission, forcing them to toe their BS company line and when their crappy ideas don't result in untold riches or when media backlash grows to loud, the studio is sent to the alter to be the sacrifice for EA's actions.  

Developers aren't perfect.  But EA is a destroyer of studios, has been for ages.  And I highly doubt this Visceral situation is any different at all.  They were allowed to do what they were good at and were successful.  Then EA started EAing it up with Dead Space 3, forced them to march lockstep with EA's policies and later play a part in their failed attempt to make Battlefield an anualized megaseries to take on CoD, and when these idiotic ideas failed to make EA the god king of space, it was Visceral's head.  

EA milk companys of all the good will of their fan bases, and then cut the head off and close it down.

Its like its their bussiness practis, its how they make money.