EA has announced today they will be closing down their Visceral Games studio, the creators of the Dead Space series, Battlefield Hardline, and several licensed titles ranging from James Bond to The Godfather. The studio was currently in development on an untitled Star Wars video game with Amy Hennig (Uncharted series) directing the title. As a result of the studio shuttering, however, the game will be retooled by a different development team moving forward.
Translation: hope you like multiplayer, Star Wars fans! And even if they don’t. EA later in the article pretty much cops to the fact that they’re going to rely on Frostbite, which makes sense, sure. But when your project was described as being originally “shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game” it’s usually not too much of a stretch to assume that it ain’t gonna be that anymore. And Frostbite likes multiplayer.
I’m less upset about this than I should be. Then again, I was already aware that anything like a KOTOR 3 was impossible. Spiritual scar tissue has its points.
Moe Lane
PS: What does that mean for the possibility for another Dead Space game? Depends. When does the IP go into the public domain?
Funny, I thought that had already happened when Dead Space 3 went pay-to-win.
It wasn’t pay to win, really. Farming for crafting supplies was trivial and not even necessary. The microtransactions for crafting supplies were obnoxious, but really only there to extract cash from fools who didn’t know better. Dumb, but they didn’t hurt the gameplay. What hurt the gameplay of 3 was the emphasis on constant grindy combat and unimaginative co-op gameplay.
I was really hoping they’d pick up Dead Space again. I know it was a dying series (even before 3) but man, I did love it.