 | |
| Formerly | EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Defunct | October 17, 2017 |
| Headquarters | , US |
Key people |
|
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 80 (2017) |
| Parent | Electronic Arts |
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) [1] was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is best known for creating and principally developing the Dead Space series, and was also involved in making Tiger Woods PGA Tour games between 1999 and 2006.
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved from San Mateo, California to a new corporate headquarters building that they had constructed in Redwood Shores, California. [2] In this move, they founded a studio at this location, named EA Redwood Shores, which operated under the general "EA Games" division.
EA Redwood Shores's initial title was Future Cop: LAPD , released in 1998. Subsequent games through 2008 were generally licensed tie-ins with movies and other properties. [3] According to designers Ben Wanat and Wright Bagwell, EA had not been keen on producing original intellectual property (IP) during this time, but the studio was pursuing an idea of making a second sequel to System Shock and Vice President and General Manager Glen Schofield had been trying to coax EA's executives to let them pursue this. While they had some gameplay and ideas set for this game, the title changed upon the release of Capcom's Resident Evil 4 in 2005, which received high critical praise and commercial success. According to Wanat and Bagwell, not only did Resident Evil 4 alter their ideas for the System Shock game, but it also helped Schofield to convince EA's management to let them pursue a new title. The game became known as Dead Space . [4]
Dead Space was a critical success, leading the studio to be rebranded to Visceral Games in 2009. [3] Along with this, the studio was moved out from EA Games and became its own division under EA, being the first "genre" studio within the company, with the focus of developing third-person action games in the same vein as Dead Space. [5] Alongside the rebranding, two sister studios, Visceral Montreal in Montreal, Quebec alongside EA Montreal, and Visceral Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia were established. [6]
Alongside its work for Dante's Inferno , inspired by the Divine Comedy , Visceral had announced plans in 2009 for a title called The Ripper , which was inspired by Jack the Ripper. [3] The Ripper was confirmed to have been cancelled, potentially as early as 2009, [7] but industry rumors suggested that a spin-out of that title Blood Dust had been at work at the Visceral Melbourne studio before the project was cancelled. The Visceral Melbourne studio was closed down on September 19, 2011. [8]
On its release in 2010, Dante's Inferno received mixed reviews, and the studio subsequently returned to Dead Space with its sequel Dead Space 2 , released in 2011. [3] The sequel has similar critical success, but in 2017, it was revealed that the game was considered a financial disappointment with EA; following the studio's closure, former level design Zach Wilson estimated that with development costs around $47M and an equivalent marketing budget, EA did not recoup enough costs on 4 million in sales. [9] [3]
Visceral continued working on the next title, Dead Space 3 , which they wanted to make in the same vein as the first title, but according to Wanat, there was concern from EA about this approach, and among other large changes, had the team introduce co-operative play into the game. [10] Wanat described that there was pressure to make the game play faster and appeal to a broader audience, an approach that was at odds with the roots of the series in the horror genre. [4] Though the game still had generally positives on its release in 2013, it sold far less than Dead Space 2. [4] EA's VP Patrick Söderlund said in a July 2013 interview, following Dead Space 3's that while they still valued the franchise, Visceral was not working on a fourth title, and instead had been assigned to two new projects. [11]
Visceral had also been developing Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel with the Visceral Montreal studio. Upon its completion, EA let go of the whole of Visceral Montreal on February 21, 2013. [12] One of the two projects that Visceral started working on in 2013 was Battlefield Hardline , a "Cops and Robbers" variation on the previous Battlefield games. [3] A smaller team then started working on a project called Jamaica, a pirate-themed game. [13]
In early 2013, Disney had acquired Lucasfilm and shut down its game development studio LucasArts. EA quickly made a deal to help develop lucrative Star Wars games through three of its studios, including Visceral. [13] Furthermore, Ubisoft had announced Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag , which also was based on a pirate theme. [13] EA cancelled the Jamaica project in favor of a Star Wars game. The studio opted to pitch a third-person action game that maintained the spirit of Jamaica, having players play as "space scoundrels" in an open-world-style Star Wars universe, and code-named this project as Yuma. [13] Amy Hennig, the writer for the first three Uncharted games from Naughty Dog, was brought into EA for Visceral as creative lead and to help write the story for Yuma. [13] The concept was later changed, making it about a large-scale heist and renaming it Ragtag.
EA made the decision to close down Visceral on October 17, 2017. [13] EA reassigned the Star Wars game to its EA Worldwide Studios, led by EA Vancouver, and said they will revamp the gameplay. [14] The closure of Visceral was seen as a sign of the waning interest in publishers in making games that are strictly single player, as many of Visceral's games had been. [3] [15] [16] [17] In light of these concerns, EA's CEO Andrew Wilson stated that the reason for Visceral's closure wasn't a single-player versus multiplayer game issue, but instead one based on listening to player feedback and following marketplace trends. The company felt that the current design of Ragtag wasn't fitting these changes and that the closure of Visceral and reassignment to another studio was because "we needed to pivot the design". [18]
| Year | Game | Platform(s) |
|---|---|---|
| as EA Redwood Shores | ||
| 1998 | Future Cop: LAPD | Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation |
| 1999 | CyberTiger | PlayStation |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2000 | ||
| 2000 | NASCAR Rumble | |
| Road Rash: Jailbreak | ||
| F1 Championship Season 2000 | PlayStation 2 | |
| 2001 | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2001 | |
| Rumble Racing | ||
| James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox | |
| 2002 | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2002 | PlayStation 2 |
| Freekstyle | PlayStation 2, GameCube | |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox | |
| 2003 | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 | |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox | |
| 2004 | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 | ||
| The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age | ||
| 2005 | Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 |
| James Bond 007: From Russia with Love | GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable | |
| 2006 | The Godfather | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii | |
| 2007 | The Sims 2: Pets | GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii |
| MySims | Wii, Microsoft Windows | |
| The Sims 2: Castaway | Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable | |
| The Simpsons Game | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 | |
| 2008 | The Sims Carnival: Snap City | Microsoft Windows |
| The Sims 2: Apartment Life | ||
| Dead Space | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| MySims Kingdom | Wii | |
| 2009 | MySims Party | |
| The Godfather II | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| as Visceral Games | ||
| 2009 | Dead Space: Extraction | PlayStation 3, Wii |
| MySims Agents | Wii | |
| 2010 | Dante's Inferno | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| The Sims 3: Ambitions | Microsoft Windows, OS X | |
| 2011 | Dead Space 2 [19] | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| 2013 | Dead Space 3 | |
| Battlefield 3: End Game [20] | ||
| Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 | |
| 2015 | Battlefield Hardline | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One |
| Cancelled | The Ripper | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Cancelled | Blood Dust | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Cancelled | Dante's Purgatory | Likely PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Cancelled | " Project Ragtag " - unnamed Star Wars title | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including The Sims, Spore and SimCity.
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die! The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.
A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the gameplay. Video games in general can feature several game modes, including single-player modes designed to be played by a single player in addition to multi-player modes.
Frostbite is a game engine developed by DICE, designed for cross-platform use on Microsoft Windows, seventh generation game consoles PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, eighth generation game consoles PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch and ninth generation game consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, in addition to usage in the now defunct cloud streaming service Google Stadia.
Dead Space is a 2008 survival horror game developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows as the debut entry in the Dead Space series. Set on a mining spaceship overrun by deadly monsters called Necromorphs following the discovery of an artifact called the Marker, the player controls engineer Isaac Clarke as he navigates the spaceship and fights the Necromorphs while struggling with growing psychosis. Gameplay has Isaac exploring different areas through its narrative, solving environmental puzzles and finding ammunition and equipment to survive.
Glen Schofield is an American video game artist, designer, director, and producer. He was formerly the vice president and general manager at Visceral Games, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, founder and former CEO of Striking Distance Studios, and the creator and executive producer of the third-person survival horror video game Dead Space.
Dead Space: Extraction is a 2009 rail shooter co-developed by EA Redwood Shores and Eurocom and published by Electronic Arts for the Wii. A port for PlayStation 3 was released in 2011 alongside Dead Space 2. A spin-off within the Dead Space series and a prequel to the original game, the story follows survivors from the Aegis VII mining colony as the planet and newly-arrived ship USG Ishimura is overrun by deadly monsters called Necromorphs. Gameplay involves going through scripted sequences with different characters, using assigned weapons to kill Necromorphs by severing their limbs. Each version respectively supported the Wii Zapper and PlayStation Move peripherals.
Necromorphs are a collective of undead creatures in the science fiction horror multimedia franchise Dead Space by Electronic Arts, introduced in the 2008 comic book series of the same name. Within the series, the Necromorphs are constructed from reanimated corpses and come in multiple forms of various shapes and sizes. They are violent creatures driven to murder and infect all life within their vicinity by a signal emitted from mysterious alien artifacts known as Markers.
Dead Space 2 is a 2011 survival horror game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in January. The second mainline entry in the Dead Space series, set on the Titan-based Sprawl space station, the story follows series protagonist Isaac Clarke as he fights against both an outbreak of the monstrous Necromorphs and debilitating mental illness induced by the alien Markers. Gameplay features Isaac exploring a series of levels, solving puzzles to progress, and finding resources while fighting off Necromorphs. The game included a competitive multiplayer, with the Sprawl's security forces fighting teams of Necromorphs.
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at EA Redwood Shores and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space. The company is based in Foster City, California. The studio has developed and co-developed various video games in the Call of Duty series. The company is owned by Activision.
Amy Hennig is an American video game writer and director, formerly for the video game company Naughty Dog. She began her work in the industry on the Nintendo Entertainment System, with her design debut on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. She later went to work for Crystal Dynamics, working primarily on the Legacy of Kain series. With Naughty Dog, she worked primarily on the Jak and Daxter and Uncharted series, the latter of which she created.
Dead Space is a science fiction/horror franchise created and directed by Glen Schofield. Dead Space was developed by Visceral Games and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format; each installment in the Dead Space franchise is a continuation or addition to a continuing storyline, with sections of the storyline presented in prequels or sequels, sometimes presented in other media from the originating video game series, which includes two films and several comic books and novels.
Dead Space 3 is a 2013 survival horror action video game developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360. It is the third and final main entry in the Dead Space series. The game's story follows player-character Isaac Clarke and his allies as they explore a frozen planet, Tau Volantis, to discover the origins of the growing threat from their enemies, the Necromorphs. Players control Isaac and explore the environment, solve puzzles, and find resources, while fighting Necromorphs and hostile humans called Unitologists. The game supports online cooperative multiplayer sessions in which a second player takes the role of new character John Carver.
Michael Condrey is the co-founder and former studio head of Sledgehammer Games, which he founded with Glen Schofield after their collaboration on the popular video game franchise Dead Space. He is now the president of 31st Union, a 2K studio located in Silicon Valley, California.
Motive Studio is a Canadian video game developer and studio of Electronic Arts (EA) based in Montreal.
Since the 2010s and before, the video game company Electronic Arts has been at the center of numerous controversies involving acquisitions of companies and anti-consumer practices in their individual games, as well as lawsuits alleging anti-competitive practices on EA's part when signing sports-related contracts. In 2012 and 2013, the company was named "Worst Company in America" by Consumerist, while it was named the 5th most hated company in the United States by USA Today in 2018.
Project Ragtag was a codename for an untitled action-adventure third-person shooter video game set within the Star Wars universe. It had been under development by Visceral Games since around 2013 and set to be published by Electronic Arts before its cancellation in 2017. The project was led by the creator of the Uncharted series, Amy Hennig. It was to be a linear game about a large-scale heist, taking place in the wake of events of Star Wars IV: A New Hope. EA Vancouver and Motive Studio had assisted the game's development. Visceral Games was shut down by Electronic Arts on October 17, 2017, and the game's development was rebooted by EA Vancouver to become an open world title. Despite this, the project was reportedly cancelled.
The music of the Dead Space media franchise, created by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts around a series of survival horror video games, was mainly composed by Jason Graves. Graves composed the music for all mainline entries in the series and the majority of spin-off titles. Other composers have been involved in the series; Grave's recurring collaborator Rod Abernethy acted as an early advisor for the titular first game, James Hannigan co-composed the score for Dead Space 3, while the 2023 remake of the first game combined original music with contributions by Trevor Gureckis. Scores for the movies Dead Space: Downfall and Dead Space: Aftermath were respectively composed were Seth Podowitz and Christopher Tin.
Dead Space is a 2023 survival horror game developed by Motive Studio and published by Electronic Arts. A remake of the 2008 game of the same name developed by EA Redwood Shores, it is the first release in the Dead Space series since 2013's Dead Space 3. Like the original game, it is set on a mining spaceship overrun by deadly monsters called Necromorphs following the discovery of an artifact called the Marker. The player controls engineer Isaac Clarke as he navigates the spaceship and fights the Necromorphs while struggling with growing psychosis.
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