EA Axes Yet Another Studio, Shuts Down Dead Space Developer

Entertainment Arts (EA) has earned a reputation for buying video game studios and ruining them, and it seems it has done it again. This time, the victim is Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space series. EA just announced that it is shutting down the outfit and the Star Wars game it is developing will be given to another team.

The publisher made the announcement via blog post, where Patrick Söderlund provided an update on Visceral Games and the project they are working on. This development won’t likely come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the publisher’s handiwork for years.

“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,” the blog post reads.

“A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development of this game, led by a team from EA Vancouver that has already been working on the project. Our Visceral studio will be ramping down and closing, and we’re in the midst of shifting as many of the team as possible to other projects and teams at EA.”

This move by EA might not seem profound in any way, but it does come with a few problems, especially for former Uncharted director Amy Hennig. Hennig left Naughty Dog to direct the Star Wars game that Visceral was developing, Kotaku reports. EA has revealed that they are currently in talks with the veteran to discuss her options.