EA Shuts Down Visceral Games. The New Star Wars Game Moves to a New Studio
After what seems like forever waiting to hear more about Visceral’s upcoming Star Wars game, the waiting is over, but probably not in the way fans were hoping for. After testing the game’s concept with gamers, EA has decided to pull the plug on Visceral’s project and move forward in a different direction.
From EA:
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.
In the past we’ve shared with you multiple rumors about this game. The first indications early on were that the game will feature Han Solo as the main character in a third person adventure game similar to Uncharted. Later when the Han Solo spin-off movie was announced the game shifted to another unknown character. During Celebration Orlando the project was confirmed for a 2018 release date and it was mentioned that the gameplay will be like Uncharted. Also a few images from the game were shared (here).
Kotaku has given more details on the news. According to them:
It’s safe to presume that the new incarnation of this Star Wars game will involve “games as a service” elements, as has been EA’s mandate for quite some time now.
EA was not clear about the status of longtime Uncharted director Amy Hennig, who joined Visceral to direct this Star Wars game after she left Naughty Dog in early 2015. In an e-mail, an EA spokesperson said: “We are in discussions with Amy about her next move.”
Also Kotaku has obtained another email by Söderlund, who offered more details on the Star Wars game, which was codenamed Ragtag:
A development team from across Worldwide Studios will take over development of Ragtag, led by the EA Vancouver team that has already been working on the project. Steve Anthony will lead this team, and we will use much of the work that has been done to date by Visceral – the assets of Ragtag that have already been built will be the foundation of this new game.
This is really sad news, but let’s hope it’s for the best. The project is still not cancelled and obviously they are trying to figure out how to make the game more appealing in the ever demanding game market.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
lol
Games as a service. Or as EA does it, release a third of the game for $60 then charge $100 for the rest
Nah that’s dumb. Let’s give them 1/4 of a game and a passport for content we promise to EVENTUALLY release. That way we can take our time.
Ugh. I was hoping for a linear, story-driven game. Looks like we’ll probably get SWTOR part 2 instead. Open world is overrated, IMO. It usually means “shallow, fragmented story” and “lots of grinding.” What about those things is fun to people? I’ll never understand the huge push for open-world games. They’re just time-wasters, IMO.
Just cancel all this crap and give us the space combat simulation we want.
Open world doesn’t have to mean ‘no story’ though. It just takes brains and clever thinking in the level and mission design. Things EA doesn’t believe in sadly.
I don’t think this game will ever see the light of day. Announced in what? 2014 and won’t hit the shelves until 2020?
Sadly, i have to agree with you, it ain’t looking good.
🙁
Ugh, it’s 1313 all over again…
Just give us an X-wing TIE Fighter VR game and we’ll be happy.
Won’t happen. EA seems dead set on making games they can sell on the lowest common denominator platforms, so something relatively complex like a flight sim is out, based on controls if no other reason. That, and what made XW and TF work so well was largely the brilliant mission design – EA don’t got time for clever missions design.
The irritating thing is the Rogue One VR mission was fantastic. It’s one of the highest rated VR experiences yet. So to meet that demand, they announce no VR content in Battlefront 2. I swear EA has no idea who their market is.
Again, same problem as making a decent flight-sim; if the hardware isn’t functionally the same across all the platforms they want to port to, EA isn’t interested. VR is going to die a slow death I’m afraid. Same thing happened with the Kinect 2 – great piece of hardware, amazing potential (seriously, just for one, imagine what was floated at release – a Resident Evil game that responds to your heart rate by throwing surprises at you when you least expect it) that’s going to die on the vine.
The issue there is there are only 21 games available for the Kinect 2. VR can be tweaked across PSVR, Oculus and Vive, so there is a bigger audience. The PSVR alone has shipped over 1 million units and it has some major flagship titles on it and that list is growing. Kinect failed because of developer support. I don’t see VR having this issue. I played the Battlefront level. It’s game changing.
Ugh- stinks too since this is the one i most cared about. I love battlefront and i am glad they finally gave us a campaign, but story-driven action adventure is more my genre rather than large scale FPS
Nothing nice to say so…
EA shutting down Visceral Games is just one of the many reasons why Disney shutting down Lucasarts years ago was a big mistake; at least lucasarts had a diversity and collaboration of game developers of Star Wars games in different genres, pre-disney.
I really wish former employees of Viceral luck in finding new jobs.
EA said they’re working on shuffling Visceral’s team members into other studios. But many will likely be left without a job regardless.
Lucas Arts hadn’t produced a decent game in years, and they had no in house developers at the point they were closed. Star Wars games had sucked for over a decade under LA.
We remember LucasArt with rose colored glasses. For every one good game we had 10 Masters of Teras Kasi. They released more crap than quality.
shit
At this point, i really can’t see this game being completed, it’s an all too common occurrence in the industry, Star Wars games in particular have had a torrid history in this regard.
I sincerely hope i am proven wrong this time around, but the fact that we still hadn’t heard much about this project was really starting to raise suspicion and concern, which unfortunately has been confirmed.
I hope everyone who contributed to the game is able to find new jobs in game development, this must be a real bummer for those people.
Good luck, project ragtag…
To be fair, a lot of Star Wars games being cancelled happened because of George Lucas’s involvement leading to negative outcomes, as well as internal politics and in-groups. This is the man that cancelled a Chewbacca game simply because he didn’t want Chewie to be the star of anything, and who wanted Starkiller in The Force Unleashed to be named Darth Icky.
Exactly.
The Darth Icky thing was a joke.
Watch it be filled with paid-for loot boxes and a microtransaction system that disregards the game’s actual progression system, essentially acting as the company wanting you to pay them to not play the game.
Games aren’t games anymore. They’re pretty donation boxes going to the “Make Rich People Richer” charity. This is why I tend to stick with indie, there’s some fucking heart in those games still.
Both indies and Nintendo games.
Oh yeah, Nintendo games for sure. I am so happy with the fact that they’re kicking SO MUCH ASS lately. 😀
I hate EA /sigh
In other news, it sounds like Arcade Mode is as bad as my worst fears in BF2. Goddamit, EA, THIS IS NOT HARD.
EA isn’t interested in doing it right. They’re interested in making you a pretty package that you pay for. Once you put your cash on the counter, nothing else matters. Until you get addicted to their gambling system, that is.
Yeah, I’m contemplating pulling the plug on my pre-order. Only thing keeping me in is the possibility that SP is any good.
Please do it. Then I don’t have to listen to you whine incessantly about it.
I say pull the plug on your preorder and wait until the game dips in price before picking it up. But that’s just me.
Actually, considering how much you detested Battlefront and stated repeatedly on these forums you wouldn’t purchase 2, I’m surprised you did Pre-order.
I think it was for the fact that you could say you pre-purchased it then pulled it when you were offended by whatever new thing you wanted to be offended about would occur.
Then you could talk about it in self-righteous indignation.
So sad you have me blocked. Even so, you’re still fun to tease.
AI, you DO understand what ‘blocked’ means, right? I mean, I know it’s you, because you’re the only no-life, man-crushing dink I’ve ever had to block. Looks like you’re making more friends further up the thread in your usual spergy way. Good for you. You loose. You get nothing. Good day, sir.
I personally think the game looks great, but I agree there’s still a lot of work to be done. Mainly with the battle point system. They need to make those vehicles cheaper, there’s barely any ground or aerial reinforcements because everyone is just saving up to be a hero. But I’m curious to what you heard about. What’s killin the hype?
Arcade has been confirmed to, instead of what we thought we were likely getting (offline version of the MP maps just with bots and couch co-op) because, remember, EA was “listening to the criticism they received, and YES! We’re doing offline co-op for you guys!!!!”, mini-missions, max 10v10. There’s about 6 of them if I recall. You play a hero (Maul for example) in each of the scenarios, and have to wipe out 10-20 clones for example. The end. Now, one of the level designers at DICE has said they’d like to see offline co-op expanded in the future, but the point is that this was only him musing about future things he’d like, and that the offline stuff actually shipping in the game next month is looking very, very weak.
Ah, I see..well that’s a shame ☹️
It’s getting difficult to look forward to any news, knowing that they may backtrack any given second (this news, movie directors, story writers, etc…)
Hindsight being 20-20, we really should have expected it at this point. Disney was testing the waters with TFA, and R1 made them comfortable enough to sink in waist-deep. Now they’re splashing around, making a mess, and seeing what happens.
I hope there’s no dianoga in that pool.
Dear Michelle.
Disney has nothing to do with this. Your anger is misdirected. As usual.
I mean, I was speaking generally, and not even being angry about it. Call off your dogs, chief.
From the girl who told me in over twenty different comments to kill myself?
I think they call that a grudge. And why bring that up, even? What are you trying to do?
I think you flew off the handle and told me to kill myself repeatedly, and if I recall correctly, you even invited the Mods to ban you because you were knew how horrible you were being without caring about the consequences.
And I’m vindictive?
And I bring it up because you told me to call off the dogs as if I was being severe, when you have done much, much, much worse.
If you want me to leave, say it.
Nope. Just be more reasonable in your posting and prepare to engage in debate when flippant opinions are dropped on a message board for dedicated Star Wars fans.
You’re perfectly capable of intelligent debate with interesting and thoughtful points you bring to the table.
There are few people here I’d actually like to see leave, and those I do I block outright.
Yeah, I blocked that guy eons ago. I suggest you do the same.
Okay, yes, you have explained that I have been a shitstain in the past. Congratulations, you showed everyone that I’m bad. Now what?
Nothing to do with showing everyone that you’re bad. Pointing out my dogs aren’t near as bad as yours when unleashed.
Why does that matter, though, when I’m telling you to knock off being a dick?
Because I’m hardly being a dick.
Also, how do you ‘generally’ blame Disney for what EA just did without blaming Disney for what EA did. You can blame them for selecting EA to carry the license.
This makes sense.
But it wasn’t like an exec at Disney said “HEY GUYS. GUYS AT EA. YEAH. KILL VISCERAL. BECAUSE WE SAID.
Especially since LFL calls the Star Wars shots, not Disney.
Just saying.
Granted, it was my bad that I didn’t specifically say I was talking about the director swapping nonsense and not EA’s big mess. Should have specified. The link sounded good in my head.
And yes, I am fully aware that it wasn’t Disney’s decision, and that it was EA’s. EA has a history of killing off the studios that aren’t performing. I put all the blame for this mess on them.
And honestly I’m not totally sure that Kathleen Kennedy is acting on her own. Is there any confirmation that she isn’t getting notes from Bob and his council? Is there any that she is? A company like Disney doesn’t seem like the type to let their massive properties reign free.
She is on her own. I’m sure she gets nudges. But if she sucks at her job, she gets replaced. That’s basically the deal. She might get more micro managed if Star Wars were underperforming, but 3 billion dollars in ticket sales later, they’ve almost recouped the cost of the LFL purchase at the box office alone.
It was a mistake to give EA the license. They’re going to lose it, too.
We’ll see how Battlefront 2 goes. I’m not freaking out like everyone about the boxes, but if sales suck because of it, oh de well for them.
This has nothing to do with the article above
Oh yes, because LFL is constantly back tracking, right?
They lost one Director, and EA made an inhouse decision that affected a Star Wars game.
And as for writers if you’re talking about Michael Arndt waaaaay back in 2013 you’re really reaching to be negative today.
Pretty much par for the course with you, son.
technically they’ve lost three directors. 😉
I don’t count’m if they didn’t start Directing yet.
then its two directors. 😉
So Gareth Edwards is still the official maker of R1? 🙂 (kidding here)
On the bright side, Fantasy Flight Games still has the Star Wars License and has three, soon to be four miniature games, two card games, and an epic RPG system.
Get back to your roots. Roll some dice.
I have to agree, actually, the FFG RPG system is a ton of fun. I haven’t played the card games though. Are they any fun?
Yes. The LCG is easier to get into, being as you don’t have the random card draws from a pack. But Destiny has a special tasty strategy to it that makes it very appealing.
I keep hearing great things about Destiny. But admittedly, I’m avoiding it. My wallet just can’t handle the strain right now. That said, I’m still enjoying the heck out of X-Wing and Imperial Assault. I’ve picked up a copy of Rebellion, but it’s still in its shrink wrap. One of these days I’ll have two hours to rub together…
I’m jealous..I have IA but never had people really get into it.
X-Wing, Armada, and the RPGs is mostly what I get to play.
People play table top games not named Magic? The $1200 worth of Star Wars miniatures wasting away in my garage doesn’t think so.
The $1200 worth of Star Wars miniatures thinks you should make more effort to find people to play miniature war games with at the appropriate locations to do so.
And yes, people play all sorts of different games other than Magic.
Have you not heard of X-Wing? It’s been going strong since 2012.
Maybe you should think before you make a comment that paints you as ignorant.
Holy shit your right! Why didn’t I make enough of an effort?
You insight is truly inspiring.
Hey man, no problem. I hope you find a group to try out some of the new games.
I don’t play video games. And unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you should be able to find a gaming group without too much effort. Fantasy Flight has been hitting it out of the park with some pretty incredible games. And table-top gaming, in my opinion, is much more fun than sitting on the couch with your eyes glued to the screen. Make some friends, grab some beers, bust some chops, and roll some dice.
I love tabletop gaming. Here in Phoenix we have a shitload of comic shops, well at least we did back when Star Wars Miniatures came out. They had some games going at the beginning but they dried up fast. Ended up just playing with my nephews. Same thing happened with VS.
Go outside the comic-shop scene. Phoenix is pretty big. Finding a gaming group shouldn’t require too much effort. I live in Cleveland and there are several local gaming clubs and informal groups that meet at people’s homes and pubs and such. Most of these can be found through Facebook and other social media outlets. Cleveland also has a couple game-themed bars that are sorta fun. I’d suggest going that route. There’s no sense in letting $1200 worth of gaming supplies rot in your garage. Of course, you could always pack them up and send them to me. : D
Well I’m holding on to them until my girls get old enough to play. Beats Monopoly. It’s too bad the game didn’t last, it was really fun.
They lost the license.
Heads up though, if you have 1200 dollars in miniatures you PURCHASED they sell really well second hand. The game is still popular and played and a lot of people use the miniatures in RPG settings.
You could probably sell your whole lot to Coolstuffinc for a huge amount of store credit, and turn it around and invest in something new that’s more current.
Legion is right around the corner in 2018.
When you click sell and it gives you the price, is that how much they are selling it for or how much they will pay? IF that’s what they pay that’s not bad.
You can contact them in an email with a list, too. Those little guys are a gold mine. If you don’t mind parting with them. I just sold mine (finally) and bought a new Warhammer 40k army 🙂
But if you want to try X-Wing or Armada you could easily have a decent sized fleet for both Imperials and Rebels (And scum in X-Wing) in short order with the credit.
Fantasy Flight is the first company to do right by the Star Wars license since West End Games. I couldn’t be happier than what they’ve issued.
Would be fun, yet expensive probably lol.
X-Wing is 40 bucks for the starter set, Armada (Capital ships) is closer to 100. Armada is cheaper in the long run (fewer miniatures) X-Wing is cheaper to start getting into.
The RPG is more pricey, but if you have people who want to play, worth every dollar.
Awesome! Thanks for the tips.
So basically it’s not open world with pointless grinding.
Not every has to be open world. Some of us have lives and can’t dedicate a month to every game that comes out. Why not release it as a 4-6 hour game
like Hellblade and charge $30 for it? Give me an awesome story I can burn through and have a fun experience.
Disney made a mistake for leaving Star Wars games in the hands of EA, one of the most hated video game companies out there.
Pretty much. A failure to research the lack of love EA has in the gaming community really shows here.
lol what the hell
i wanted so bad sw 1313- cancelled by disney
ok i wanted a uncharted style star wars game- moved to a studio who develops fifa and starts from scratch
E.A really wants to be the most hated company ever
The fate of 1313……for so many years I hoped for an Uncharted Star Wars game, looks like the odds are against my wishes….I wonder if in time a new interesting Star Wars game will rise I will still be involved in videogaming :-))))
Very disappointed to hear this. A story-driven, linear adventure game was exactly what I wanted. At least there’s still Respawn’s game, which is the one I was most looking forward to anyway. Hopefully that one stays on course.
Do we know anything about that one? I don’t think I’ve heard anything.
I saw lightsabers in the EA Star Wars featurette at E3 2016, and that’s enough for me! I think they also said something about it being set in a time period that hasn’t been explored before.
ah man, this is disappointing. still, i prefer they nixed it now rather than forcing out a half baked product.
I’m happy to wait. The want to make a great game. Bring it on
I have come to a realization.
“Thanks Disney” on these forums is no different than the “Thanks Obama” on conservative media comment sections.
Both in context and the inaccuracy of its use.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01229c0cd18aa0f53cc99057329f104ef8c70b8219e73467a4d88e957349f4a6.jpg
I’m offended that I’m not the hot one. Seriously. I thought we were friends.
ask and you shall receive
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/641a97d254a791329ad3571d63ed0def071e2a4277c16ae14dea5e0bd3e15e9b.jpg :
UPVOTE MORE THAN 90000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.
I just replaced my Last Jedi desktop wall paper with this image.
Oh really, inaccuracy? Do enlighten.
Disney doesn’t make all the decisions that this people claim they make.
I don’t try to free people of their ignorance son, I just make fun of them for it.
What an amazing comparison, i’m serious. I never noticed but it’s basically the same phrase just switching a word.
It’s usually the same type of person, too.
Fuck EA. The game will probably still be good, maybe even better than it was going to be before, but I want more Dead Space games (and cool innovative game studios like Visceral)
EA kills anything it touches. I wanted this to be good too, but based on their press release, there are a lot of red flags. “Games as a service” being the primary.
I think the expression “enjoy for a long time to come” is very important in that particular case… The Uncharted games, even as they are VERY GOOD, are somewhat short in duration (compare with onr like The Witcher 3 for instance). Maybe that factor bothered EA. Battlefront II have a extensive multiplayer aspect that will keep the game going on with players for the coming years. I think Ragtag would not have a multiplayer component, and maybe this discouraged EA.
It is just a theory folks, something that crossed my mind. I am very sad that this is happening, because I am trully curious about this project. Let’s hope that it will bring a good canon story in the end of the day, that this survive the overhaul.
They want DLC’s bro. It grew the gaming industry by 66% over the past few years. As in Billions. This game will not be the same, and for that I am saddened =( Expect a MP focused game with lots of microtransactions, NOT a KOTOR successor.
Well… I will only buy that game on day one if it brings a canon story. Thats the reason I skipped BF 1 and pre-ordered BF II. I like single play more. Multiplayer only is not my thing. Playing online is accessory for me. We can only wait for news now.
Same here. Battlefront came with my Darth Vader PS4. I never played it, since I don´t have time for multiplayer and there is no story mode….I love the Uncharted series and I was so happy they will make a Star Wars version of the game…and now it´s just another MMO with season pass and DLC….
Maybe they will instead change for a more open world aproach, with a longer campaign. It is the role model of that video game age anyways, the majority of the PS4 AAA games I played are open world. I believe is not so much a matter of multiplayer, but of the longevity of the game. I hope that they at least make a long game with a very good, valid story, that fits into canon beautifuly. The major atractive to me on Star Wars is the unified canon, personally.
You hit the nail on the head and it’s exactly why this is bad news and sucks for this game. We NEEDED a single player story driven game. EA has now decided to turn this into another story-lite shit show with focus on multiplayer with overpriced DLC’s, season passes, and loot boxes. No thanks.
And I love Amy Henning’s work. I played a lot the Legacy of Kain franchise and Uncharted, and the writing always was an highlight. Trully sad for her, she was very enthusiastic!!!
What a colossal screw up this has been. Personally, I’ve been dying to play some kind of non-mmo adventure/rpg game in the Star Wars universe since Episode 7 was first announced. Now, 5 years later, we’re still not sure when this will happen.
“Games as a service” is the deathmark for this game. Instead of giving us a story driven linear single player game, EA realized how much more money they can make by making consumer unfriendly season passes, DLC, and loot boxes. Fuck EA. We need need LucasArts back. 🙁
Watch this to see why this is bad: https://youtu.be/auJkO3AS828
Give me a new Jedi knight now !!!
It be nice if this game was easier very gonna see this her light of day. Disney screwed up giving it so lisence to EA only. It’s right up there the JJ choice to build Death Star three.
It be nice if this game was easier very gonna see this her light of day. Disney screwed up giving it so lisence to EA only. It’s right up there the JJ choice to build Death Star three.
Visceral was a great team. This is bad news.
agreed!
The team’s being re-assigned to other studios under EA’s wing, so at least most of them aren’t without a job. But yeah, still bad news regardless.
I don’t know what to think about this. A linear, single player only action-adventure game is not really my taste. It doesn’t sound bad, but paying 60$ for 5-6 hour of gamplay doesn’t sound good either. I would rather see a wither 3 like open word rpg, or a tps with rpg elements like the mass effect trilogy.
I would love a game like Shadow of Mordor but set in the SW universe. Star Wars: Shadow of Moraband. Holy crap, I’m excited already. 🙂
That sounds awesome! I played SoM, I really liked it, seeing something like that in the SW universe would definitely be amazing.
What I also would like to see is a star wars rts set in the clone wars. Republic at war maybe 🙂
Can’t shake the feeling that it’ll become some sort of online multiplayer instead of the single player uncharted-em-up we expected.
If so, I’d be gutted.
if it’s GTA in a galaxy far away, i m going for it
Can anyone translate the EA doublespeak for me? It has been a while since I have translated EA-prevaricate-ese.
New star wars games won’t be a single player RPG (like Mass Effect) anymore and more in the line of games like Destiny. They plan to include micro transactions to service the new style of game.
Hopefully it remains open-world.
If started as 1313 to some type of action adventure game now changing again. Why does Star Wars have so many problems keeping the same company or directors to work on it? Make a good open world rpg style game