EA Shuts Down Unit Making Star Wars Games

(RTTNews) - Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) said it is shutting down its Visceral Games Studio and making major changes to its upcoming Star Wars project currently being developed by the studio. Visceral Games is best known for creating the "Dead Space" series.

EA Executive Vice President Patrick Soderlund noted that Visceral has been working on an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe that was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game similar to video game company Naughty Dog's Uncharted series. Former Naughty Dog creative director Amy Hennig was working on the title.

Soderlund noted that throughout the title's development process, EA tested the game concept with players, listened to their feedback and closely tracked fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It then become clear to the company that it needed to "pivot the design."

"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," Soderlund said.

A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development of this game and will be led by a team from EA Vancouver that has already been working on the project.

Visceral will be ramping down and closing, while its team members are being shifted to other projects and teams at EA.

EA had originally expected Visceral's Star Wars game to launch late in the company's fiscal year 2019, but the company is now looking at a new time-frame that will be announced in the future.