One of EA’s game development studios, Visceral Games, formally known as EA Redwood Shores, has had its hand in delivering the Dead Space series as well as an upcoming Star Wars game that was expected to hit stores sometime in 2019. However, as posted by Patrick Söderlund of EA, it has been announced that Visceral Games is now defunct game studio.
Back in 1998, EA Redwood Shores began its development life by working on smaller games such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour, multiple Lord of the Rings games, and multiple James Bond games. EA Redwood Shores was later rebranded in 2009 as Visceral Games after its hit game, Dead Space. After the first entry into the series, the studio delivered three more Dead Space games, and they also worked on other AAA game titles such as Dante’s Inferno and Battlefield Hardline and DLC for The Sims 3 and Battlefield 3. The team was also expected to drop a brand new action-adventure Star Wars game, but with the shut down announcement, the project has been handed off to other studios.
Söderlund talks about Visceral and the game and how “In this fast-moving space, we are always focused on creating experiences that our players want to play,” and that “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.” As a result, the unnamed Star Wars game has been postponed, and the work is now under the belt of EA Worldwide Studios led by EA Vancouver, another EA studio that was already aiding in the development process. The game no longer has a release date, but an update will be made in the future to keep gamers up to date on the game.
The former members of Visceral Games will be reassigned to other studios and projects of EA, and with that, the gaming community also says goodbye to the last 19 years that Visceral has given them.