EA to shut down Visceral; Star Wars game moving to another studio and being revamped

[Jtbrig7390]

Much as some would say they deserve it i sadly imagine the Titanfall guys are next.

Respawn Entertainment isn't owned by EA they are just partnered with EA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respawn_Entertainment

On April 12, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that West and Zampella were forming a new independent gaming studio known as Respawn Entertainment. They were seeking funding from Electronic Arts through the EA Partners Program.

West and Zampella will retain the rights to all intellectual property produced by them in the future.

So ya Bioware is the next one on the chopping block if Anthem falls on its face.

[Edge-]

Expensive singleplayer is probably right, given talk of lootboxes with actual skill and weapon perks in them. Which is why I'm not going to buy the game. Especially after how royally they fucked up the first one.

Except that the lockboxes won't have any impact on the single player part of the game as far as I know, only the multiplayer bit. Lockboxes are still shit, but they won't impact the campaign.

[Jtbrig7390]

I think this is relevant.

Yep makes a great Desktop wallpaper.

[blackblade]

Indeed it did, given that is was about the quality of what we would get from mods if modding was enabled in BF4, and they charged full game price for it... It flopping is understandable, hell, expected.

Battlefield really needs modding again... Series was built on the modding community, and it's a total mess right now.

Probably won't happen. Everything I've hear about frostbite is not modder friendly (hell, it's barely developer friendly)

[Nefarious Tea]

Except that the lockboxes won't have any impact on the single player part of the game as far as I know, only the multiplayer bit. Lockboxes are still shit, but they won't impact the campaign.

I think the point they were trying to make was that a single player campaign costs money, so literal pay to win loot boxes are supposed to bankroll that.

[Schattenlied]

Probably won't happen. Everything I've hear about frostbite is not modder friendly (hell, it's barely developer friendly)

and as far as I know, that's all bullshit excuses they are feeding us to try to curb the demands for modding


If it's true, they need to just not design a shitty engine next time, they have no one to blame but themselves for that. Don't make shitty engines.

[dope_danny]

Respawn Entertainment isn't owned by EA they are just partnered with EA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respawn_Entertainment


So ya Bioware is the next one on the chopping block if Anthem falls on its face.

oh thank fuck i need muh titanfall 3. tf2 has been the only fps this gen not to disappoint but but be better than expectations.

[Edge-]

oh thank fuck i need muh titanfall 3. tf2 has been the only fps this gen not to disappoint but but be better than expectations.

THE CAMPAIGN WAS SO BLOODY GOOD. Damn I want more.

[Jtbrig7390]

oh thank fuck i need muh titanfall 3. tf2 has been the only fps this gen not to disappoint but but be better than expectations.

There is a TF mobile game as well and from what I hear its quite good. But ya EA holds no rights to TF or Respawn.

But sadly Respawn doesn't know the future of TF
https://gamingcentral.in/respawn-not...t-titanfall-3/

“We don’t know yet,” Zampella said about making a third Titanfall game. “The game is, critically, a huge success. We’re really happy with all the reviews and the positive sentiment. Sales, it’s too early to tell. We’d definitely like to tell more of the story and the universe. I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we’ll explore more of it.”

EA publicist Devin Bennett clarified that all EA has said on the subject of more Titanfall games is that the publisher is “committed to the franchise.” “So, whatever the f*** that means,” Zampella replied.

Maybe things have changed since that interview but who knows. The support they have given to TF2 has been amazing as hell tho.

[dope_danny]

THE CAMPAIGN WAS SO BLOODY GOOD. Damn I want more.

For months after release i wondered why it had the most gushing for an fps campaign i'd heard of since F.E.A.R or Half Life 2. Eventually i picked it up in a sale on PSN dirt cheap and beat it in one sitting it was so much fun. But i really want more. Like introduce the aliens that made the machine they dug up but give them organic titan equivalents or something.

[Deleted]

I think the problem was that the linear game couldn't accommodate Loot Boxes. They'll repurpose the assets into an open world grindfest to sell you loot boxes.

I think the problem was that the game was horrible because you don't stop and close a studio that is in full production just like that. It's quite literally a handbrake-full-stop before more money is lost.

As I already mentioned, they spent money on TF2 and now BF2... which both have SP. (I don't need to mention DA and ME, do I?)
TF2 SP is super high quality, probably the best SP-FPS experience you can currently get. BF2 looks expensively made too and should be able to stand on it's own.

Both are linear shooters.

[Lahis]

I think the problem was that the game was horrible because you don't stop and close a studio that is in full production just like that. It's quite literally a handbrake-full-stop before more money is lost.

As I already mentioned, they spent money on TF2 and now BF2... which both have SP. (I don't need to mention DA and ME, do I?)
TF2 SP is super high quality, probably the best SP-FPS experience you can currently get. BF2 looks expensively made too and should be able to stand on it's own.

Both are linear shooters.

Neither of those are pure SP games, anf BF2 has terrible loot box system too.

[Deleted]

Neither of those are pure SP games, anf BF2 has terrible loot box system too.

That's beside the point.
If the didn't believe in SP, they wouldn't include it or listen to people saying they want SP.

Neither BF2 nor TF2 needed to have SP.

What makes you think the game Visceral was doing was SP only?
Uncharted has MP too... and lootboxes.

[dope_danny]

I think the problem was that the game was horrible because you don't stop and close a studio that is in full production just like that. It's quite literally a handbrake-full-stop before more money is lost.

But they did exactly that with Dead Space 3. They were making a game about degenerative mental illness and the deeply personal horror involved. At 65% completion they showed a build to the higher ups and were told to scrap it entirely to make a cover based co-op shooter focussed on online multiplayer and microtransactions. They have done it plenty of times. They chase a perception of profit, not player enjoyment or quality.

[Edge-]

But they did exactly that with Dead Space 3. They were making a game about degenerative mental illness and the deeply personal horror involved. At 65% completion they showed a build to the higher ups and were told to scrap it entirely to make a cover based co-op shooter focussed on online multiplayer and microtransactions. They have done it plenty of times. They chase a perception of profit, not player enjoyment or quality.

Sauce for this? Never looked into the development of DS3, but I'd be very interested in reading about it if this is the case.

[Deleted]

But they did exactly that with Dead Space 3. They were making a game about degenerative mental illness and the deeply personal horror involved. At 65% completion they showed a build to the higher ups and were told to scrap it entirely to make a cover based co-op shooter focussed on online multiplayer and microtransactions. They have done it plenty of times. They chase a perception of profit, not player enjoyment or quality.

Uhu... source? Well, I don't really need it.. it's probably true but it's also inevitable that they have to deliver?

Anyway, studios fail all the time.

Studios like Bullfrog or Westwood didn't collapse because of EA, at least according to Studio Founder Castle who even said that EA did basically nothing but give them money while saying "make the best game possible".
Same with Bullfrog, who said they were basically just there at the right time with the right games as a small but efficient developer and when they were bought by EA, they didn't know how to handle the new workforce, money and didn't know what they were doing.


It's just amazing that people seem to believe EA tries to kill studios or something. If their methods were ineffective, they wouldn't exist anymore. It's as simple as that.

[Skizzit]

I think the problem was that the game was horrible because you don't stop and close a studio that is in full production just like that. It's quite literally a handbrake-full-stop before more money is lost.

As I already mentioned, they spent money on TF2 and now BF2... which both have SP. (I don't need to mention DA and ME, do I?)
TF2 SP is super high quality, probably the best SP-FPS experience you can currently get. BF2 looks expensively made too and should be able to stand on it's own.

Both are linear shooters.

Come on, you and I both know that the only reason TF2 and BF2 have single player campaigns is because there was such a huge outcry when the first games in both those series were released about the lack of a single player campaign. Had that not happen, there is no way they would have included them in the sequels. And even then, the focus is still on the multiplayer.

Why do people think that the change in focus is because they want to shift away from a single player, story driven game and towards an open world co-op and/or multiplayer game? Because they flat out said so:

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.

If it was because the game was not good, they would have just said so. Many companies have done so in the past and just came out and said something along the lines of "the game was not up to our standards of quality." There is no reason to try and spin something like that.

Of course, we do not know for sure that the game will be multiplayer focused, but it easy to read between the lines. They specifically say they want to make a game players will want to come back to i.e. not built around telling a straight forward, linear story but around a more open game filled with side content and busy work. The kind of game they can keep adding DLC and loot boxes to in order to entice players to keep spending money on it and that most likely means some kind of online connectivity along the lines of multiplayer or co-op.

In the end, no matter what it ends up becoming, it will not be an Uncharted-style adventure game set in the Star Wars universe with a well told and focused story and that is what many people were hoping for when this game was announced. I know I was.

[Deleted]

Come on, you and I both know that the only reason TF2 and BF2 have single player campaigns is because there was such a huge outcry when the first games in both those series were released about the lack of a single player campaign. Had that not happen, there is no way they would have included them in the sequels. And even then, the focus is still on the multiplayer.

Titanfall is made by Respawn, which basically made out of people who made Call of Duty, that's a multiplayer title too. It's not because of EA that Titanfall didn't have a singleplayer...
And it's also not because of EA that Titanfall 2 has one either. The thing is, they did neither deny a SP, nor did they enforce it.

The fact that they didn't say "we don't want to waste money on the SP" means that they still think it will give them more money than it costs... otherwise they wouldn't do it? Isn't that rather obvious?
Considering how expensive the SP is compared to the MP, the investment is actually pretty huge.

If it was because the game was not good, they would have just said so. Many companies have done so in the past and just came out and said something along the lines of "the game was not up to our standards of quality." There is no reason to try and spin something like that.

There are more than enough reasons to do so. Shareholders would be the most important reason.

edit:

Okay lets view it like this. Deadspace 2 was the most successful Deadspace from a player and critics perspective.
EA *lost* money developing it.
1 developer in the AAA industry burns 10.000$ in 1 month - average (Visceral had about 100-150 guys working there for the new Star Wars game). It's not unlikely that the game Visceral was working on didn't even have a finished perspective about where it wants to go (rumours, has been mentioned multiple times during it's development already).

How much money can EA expect to get from a good SP game like that?
As I said, Deadspace 2 was a ~90/100 game and loved, sold 4 millions.
Not even remotely enough money to make a profit. So it's only natural that they pull the plug and try to monetize it some more in some way.

In the meantime, service games *dominate* the market.

[dope_danny]

Sauce for this? Never looked into the development of DS3, but I'd be very interested in reading about it if this is the case.

Theres a few interviews and a few hundred reactions up on youtube about it. Apparently at the end of the PS3 era EA became convinced the hot ticket was two player online co-op with micro transactions. The devs even pointed out 'if you look back the second player character just pops in and out of existence and has no narrative in the world getting from place to place, we didnt have the time to do two divergent paths so we just made a second character model and the game loads in two isaacs one with the second model after each cutscene' and its kind of interesting in a games history and seeing how the sausage is made kind of way.

Apparently EA 'wanted them to give up on the horror audience and chase the army of two consumer' which is goddamn mind boggling.

[xxcloud417xx]

Linear single-player Star Wars game? I swear to God if this was them attempting to use Lucas Arts' assets to finish 1313 and it got canned again...