News has just come in that
Electronic Arts (EA) has officially shut down
Dead Space and
Battlefield Hardline developer
Visceral Games. The news was
recently announced by EA's Executive Vice President, Patrick Söderlund, on their official website.
After the multi-year licensing deal inked between
Disney and Electronic Arts in 2013, EA was reported to have tasked
Bioware, DICE and Visceral Games to develop games in the Star Wars universe.
Whereas Bioware continued with the development and support for
The Old Republic, and DICE went on with the development of
Battlefront and
Battlefront II, no news came out regarding the "action-adventure" game that Visceral was supposed to be developing on. Said game was rumored to have been the successor of the cancelled
Star Wars: 1313 being developed circa 2012.
Since then,
Respawn Entertainment, the team behind the
Titanfall franchise, has also
signed on to develop a third-person action-adeventure game in the Star Wars universe. Former
Naughty Dog director
Amy Hennig and TV writer
Todd Stashwick had also been roped in to co-write the story for Visceral's Star Wars game.
As always, it is a sad moment when a studio closes. Even though the staff might be able to be transferred to another department within the company and retain their jobs, the culture, ethos and history of that particular studio would no longer exist and be permanently shelved as a footnote in history.
What do you think of Visceral's closure? Do tell us your thoughts below!
