EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

[boomhauertjs]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

A return to Knights of the Old Republic?

I'd rather have it set in the Empire (or even First Order) era.

[SeaTownGamer]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

How many of these microtransaction games can truly be popular at once? Seems like people pick one and then move on after a bit...



I gotta think it'll swing back a bit towards single player eventually...once some microtransaction games fail.

It's EA how many single player franchise have they ruined or given up on...? Let's name a few...

Dead Space
Mass Effect
Crysis
Dragon Age (if it ain't dead yet, it will soon)

EA's motto should be..."If it don't make dollars then it don't make sense"

Also as lame as it sounds loot boxes and microtransactions are the way it is now. EA and Activision are the worst when it comes to those.


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[42]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

[mgoblue]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

It's EA how many single player franchise have they ruined or given up on...? Let's name a few...

Dead Space
Mass Effect
Crysis
Dragon Age (if it ain't dead yet, it will soon)

EA's motto should be..."If it don't make dollars then it don't make sense"

Also as lame as it sounds loot boxes and microtransactions are the way it is now. EA and Activision are the worst when it comes to those.


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Yeah...Just see stuff like Lawbringers struggle, not every microtransaction game kills it, so some sort of correction eventually happens. If in theory people got tired of single player stuff, they'll get tired of buying game after game to grind.

[ESPNdeportes]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

Man, this is really sad to see. I was really looking forward to an Amy Hennig Star wars game. I don't know the reason, but like most I assume its because they'll make more money with a games as service style game as opposed to a single player game.

[tarheelguy4736]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

I encourage every one to read the financial reports that EA publishes for their investors. It's available to the public since its a public company. Its a dull read at some points (and 164 pages) but it provides detail in to what they think is the main contributor in to their profits: microtransactions (or Live Services as they call them). If you read through the report, you can find it mentioned several times in reference to FIFA and Madden, as well as their other regular EA games.

http://investors.ea.com/financials.cfm

[Flawless]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

This is a fantastic read. Seems like blame can fall at the feat of everyone involved in this Star Wars project. Still obvious EA mismanaged yet another studio though.

https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152

Over the past week I’ve talked to nearly a dozen former Visceral employees who worked on Ragtag, all of whom spoke anonymously because they did not want to risk damaging their careers. I’ve also spoken to several other developers who are tangentially connected to Visceral. They all share similar stories. Ragtag was a project sunk by many factors, including a lack of resources, a vision that was too ambitious for its budget, a difficult game engine, a director who clashed with staff, a studio located in one of the most expensive cities in the world, a reputation for toxicity, multiple conflicts between Visceral and EA, and what can only be described as the curse of Star Wars.

[mestevo]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

How many of these microtransaction games can truly be popular at once? Seems like people pick one and then move on after a bit...

I gotta think it'll swing back a bit towards single player eventually...once some microtransaction games fail.

These schemes have yet to affect sales thus far.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-10-25-npd-loot-box-controversy-having-no-impact-on-sales-potential

[23]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

“She was giving these massive presentations on the story, themes,” said one person who worked on Ragtag. “EA executives are like, ‘FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year.’ Where’s your version of that?”

[Smooth Pancakes]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

“She was giving these massive presentations on the story, themes,” said one person who worked on Ragtag. “EA executives are like, ‘FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year.’ Where’s your version of that?”

Facepalm. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again, **** ultimate team! **** like ultimate team and trying to shoehorn it into every game possible, loot boxes, micro-transactions, etc, are going to be what ends up pushing me permanently out of gaming.

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[Cusefan]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

“She was giving these massive presentations on the story, themes,” said one person who worked on Ragtag. “EA executives are like, ‘FIFA Ultimate Team makes a billion dollars a year.’ Where’s your version of that?”

I know politics on this forum is prohibited but if you guys want real change in video games then we must let our politicians know that these loot boxes in video games are gambling. They need to make it so that any game with a loot box gets an automatic Mature rating. I do not want to go all Maude Flanders " Won't someone please think of the children" but its a certainly a valid point that furthers the agenda of getting this plague out of video games.

That same thrill of getting an awesome gun in a loot box feels pretty damn close to winning $50 in a casino.

[mestevo]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

A couple*quotes from some developers working on the game:

“Honestly, it was a mercy killing,” said one former Visceral employee. “It had nothing to do with whether it was gonna be single player. I don’t think it had anything to do with that. That game never could’ve been good and come out.”

“I think EA gave us too much leeway,” said one. “If anything, EA should’ve probably canceled this project earlier. I think Söderlund and them were too nice, gave us too many opportunities.”


Think the loot boxes outrage might be a bit misplaced with this particular incident.

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[Cusefan]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

A couple*quotes from some developers working on the game:

“Honestly, it was a mercy killing,” said one former Visceral employee. “It had nothing to do with whether it was gonna be single player. I don’t think it had anything to do with that. That game never could’ve been good and come out.”

“I think EA gave us too much leeway,” said one. “If anything, EA should’ve probably canceled this project earlier. I think Söderlund and them were too nice, gave us too many opportunities.”


Think the loot boxes outrage might be a bit misplaced with this particular incident.

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I am not going to pretend to know EA's exact reasoning in this particular case but just look at EA's track record for acquiring developers who focus on single player titles then shut them down when they were not able to squeeze every penny from them. I understand that every other major video game publisher does this and this is where the industry is headed, it just sucks.

EA bought and eventually shut down my favorite studio, Maxis. Maxis was the reason I got into PC games, after playing SimCity at my friends house I was hooked. After Simcity 3000 EA bought Maxis and under EA, Maxis released Simcity 4 which was really good. Then about 10 years later a new SimCity gets released at it was an absolute disaster. EA insisted that Simcity be an "always online" game even though it did not need to be and the game was literally unplayable weeks after launch. So after EA botched this launch they shutdown Maxis.

SimCity could not have loot boxes, it would not make sense. Instead of being able to artificially create value in game on existing content and cash in on it, Simcity would have required people to actually create new content. This is what its really about. Look at what the "new" SimCity does, Cities: Skylines, they offer frequent DLC and charge about $10-$12 for new content. Granted this method is basically nickel and diming people but at least there is new content available pretty frequently.

[mestevo]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

They absolutely have a track record, just saying in this case, it seems the game may have been a mess.

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[KSUowls]

Re: EA Shuts Down Visceral Games

I would love to bang on EA here given their track record. I also don't completely buy that the linear (ie: non pay 2 play service) focus of the game wasn't a motivating factor. However, seeing some of the interviews from both EA and the dev staff regarding what the game was makes me think it was not the Star Wars game I was hoping for.

I would give anything for an Elder Scrolls like Star Wars game. Develop your character into a smuggler, jedi, etc, choose your path dark/light....We'll never get that, but I would settle for KOTOR 3