EA killed Visceral because they weren't sure if their Star Wars linear game would make a profit
101 replies, posted
[quote]EA talk shutting down Visceral Games and their Star Wars project once again.
We’re now a good few weeks removed from Electronic Arts shutting down Dead Space developer Visceral Games and effectively cancelling their Star Wars project, with that game now significantly shifting direction and passing along to another developer, but the company is still explaining its thinking.
The latest explanation comes from a talk during the Credit Suisse Technology, Media & Telecom conference (spotted by Dualshockers), where EA CFO Blake Jorgensen spoke on why the company made the difficult decision.
“As we kept reviewing the game, it continued to look like a much more linear game [which] people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or ten years ago,” Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen went on to say Visceral’s Star Wars game was aiming to do big, revolutionary things but ultimately the road map for the project didn’t look financially viable for the future, which was why it had to end.
“It was an economic decision at the end of the day,” Jorgensen concludes.
This statement goes along with aspects of what the company has previously said about the closure. EA EVP Patrick Soderlund originally wrote that the closure was due to “fundamental shifts in the marketplace,” which tracks.
EA is currently trying to help those developers who lost jobs as part ofm the change to find new roles either inside or outside EA, but Jorgensen again reaffirmed today that there would be layoffs as part of the process.
It’s obvious to point to examples like the open-world successes of The Witcher 3 and Skyrim, but this year even some linear single-player games have worked out just fine, like Resident Evil 7, the excellent Nioh and JRPG bosses Persona 5 and Nier – not to mention Nintendo’s enormous recent successes. Perhaps for EA, the problem is closer to home. Here’s hoping they get it all figured out.[/quote]
[url=https://www.vg247.com/2017/11/29/ea-visceral-star-wars-game-canned-because-players-dont-like-linear-games-as-much-as-they-used-to/]VG 24/7[/url]
I hope EA will crumble to dust and the greedy fucks to choke on their money.
Aka their wasn't any potential for hamfisted micro transactions
This just reeks of, couldn't find a good way to microtransaction lootbox the game up, so it got canned.
Your typical paranoid business suit making all of " Our decisions" for us. Do they know we don't want linear games anymore? Of course not, but that won't stop them guessing some more.
- Honestly, if they really want people's attention, then they should go back to making games the way they were intended to be made.
Of course the new thing likely won't sell trillions out the gate on the first try, but as we've seen in the past with franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Grand Theft Auto consistency and care will get even a passer by's interest.
If EA wants people to care about what they have to offer, they have to take some risks and they have to keep their game's core message consistent and better.
So let's kill off an entire company. Fuckwits.
EA's slowly crumbling. I'm fine with it.
...you know what. Let the AAA crash. Let it all crash if that's what it takes. We definitely very certainly need a crash right about now.
I would like to see valve announce and release HL3, linear, without MTX or any kind of season pass. Just a complete game. And then, I would LOVE to see them turn around and have it become the highest grossing game in history, shattering records, and putting all of these AAA titles who rely on that shit to shame earnings wise.
EA could die and I probably wouldn't miss any of their properties
I don't play any of their sports games and many of their previously good franchises have been riddled with micro payments already
Bioshock Infinite and FEAR are unapologetically linear games but that doesn't stop them from being some of my favourite games ever made. I guess I'm just not the target demographic for EA.
I also haven't bought anything from EA since the Simcity/Mass Effect 3 double whamy and will continue to do so at this rate.
I'm pretty sure I've never bought an Origin game, I got them all from people giving away keys from the Humble Bundle.
Wtf a linear star wars game by the dead space guys sounds like just what the oversaturated open world market needs
Die Ea, Die.
[editline]29th November 2017[/editline]
[QUOTE=Killuah;52932913]Wtf a linear star wars game by the dead space guys sounds like just what the oversaturated open world market needs[/QUOTE]
I believe they could've given starwars a more scary/horror type of feel if they had a chance to. Star wars isn't just spaceships pew pewing eachother outta the air, and giant talking bears. Star wars could have horror elements to it as well, which I'd love to have seen.
It's quite sad that with all the money they have game studios don't experiment more. They just ride the wave until something bad happens instead of actually innovating and failing.
It wouldn't have to be an economic decision if they would make games for people rather profits.
It's Star Wars, it's a licence to print money, it's just making a proper game would be slightly less money for substantially more artistic fulfilment
[QUOTE=mikerocks;52932949]It wouldn't have to be an economic decision if they would make games for people rather profits.[/QUOTE]
Well, they're a business after all.
Can't someone hire the old Visceral team and let them create a proper Dead Space game?
That universe was too cool to just let die like that.
[QUOTE=Rossy167;52932950]It's Star Wars, it's a licence to print money, it's just making a proper game would be slightly less money for substantially more artistic fulfilment[/QUOTE]
Except a linear game doesn't present an opportunity to earn money infinitely. They didn't kill it because it wouldn't make a profit, they killed it because it won't make a FIFA profit, because much as before now every game EA makes needs to "particular level of profit" based on what EA expects to get out of the license.
Rumour is the cost of the Star Wars licence was so much, that the amount of money they're making off the Star Wars games they've released so far hasn't been enough to cover it yet.
Every time EA kills a studio it saturates the industry with veterans that need work, most of which end up at one of the half dozen or so CoD studios that directly compete with EA to begin with.
Honestly the industry would probably be more stable without EA because they are the ones ruining their own market to begin with.
[QUOTE=Saxon;52932807]Aka their wasn't any potential for hamfisted micro transactions[/QUOTE]
Didn't they just recently tell shareholders that it doesn't matter if their games have microtransactions?
[QUOTE=Antimuffin;52933008]Didn't they just recently tell shareholders that it doesn't matter if their games have microtransactions?[/QUOTE]
They did. It's probably true too, but they're not exactly struggling to break even. They're trying to break records.
There are few companies i actively wish to go bankrupt, but EA is one of them.
We already forgot about this article which explains with fully detail all what happened? [url]https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152[/url]
( yes, Kotaku having a good and interesting article, rare isn't? )
Basically it was a combination of bleeding personnel + Frostbite being hard as hell to work with + having to ask for permission to LucasArts everytime they wanted to do something + differences on the work structure + EA forcing them to work on BF Hardline + being forced yes or yes to produce a high quality game ( required 90 in Metacritic ) with few resources.
EA isn't lying here, they pulled out the plug because on the latest days of the studio, everybody knew the game was condemmed.
Blame them instead for the sales requirement, for enforcing using Frostbite, to keep splitting the team working on other projects, etc.
[QUOTE=Tuskin;52932987]Rumour is the cost of the Star Wars licence was so much, that the amount of money they're making off the Star Wars games they've released so far hasn't been enough to cover it yet.[/QUOTE]
I fucking hope so. This wouldn't have been the second time they've paid for exclusivity rather than competing and thus created a monopoly on games that could be so much better if made by someone else.
...jesus, at least out of the "big three" ubisoft occasionally does some neat stuff without fucking it up. occasionally.
activision, though, are another story.
Also, [quote]“As we kept reviewing the game, it continued to look like a much more linear game [which] people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or ten years ago,” Jorgensen said.[/quote]
What a fucking load of bullshit.
After Wolfenstein, both of them, and Doom?
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