Visceral Games

Last updated

Visceral Games
FormerlyEA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
Type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded1998;25 years ago (1998)
DefunctOctober 17, 2017;6 years ago (2017-10-17)
FateDissolved and merged into EA Vancouver and EA Montreal
Headquarters
Redwood City, California
,
United States
Key people
Scott Probst (general manager)
Amy Hennig (creative director)
Products PGA Tour (1999–2006)
Dead Space series (2008–13)
Number of employees
80 (2017)
Parent Electronic Arts

Visceral Games, previously 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.

Contents

History

EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)

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]

Redwood Shores becomes Visceral Games

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]

Final years

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]

Games

YearGamePlatform(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
CancelledBlood DustPlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Cancelled Dante's Purgatory Likely PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Cancelled" Project Ragtag " - unnamed Star Wars titleMicrosoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maxis</span> American video game developer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BioWare</span> Canadian video game developer

BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, the company has been owned by American publisher Electronic Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic Arts</span> American video game company

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by 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 course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usually a game mode designed to be played by a single player, though the game also contains multi-player modes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EA Montreal</span>

EA Montreal is a Canadian video game development studio owned and operated by Electronic Arts. The studio is based in Montreal, Quebec. It was inaugurated by EA on March 17, 2004.

<i>Dead Space</i> (2008 video game) Survival horror game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Schofield</span> American video game artist, designer, director and producer

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.

<i>Dead Space: Extraction</i> 2009 video game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Necromorph</span> Fictional undead creatures in the multimedia franchise Dead Space

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.

<i>Dead Space 2</i> 2011 video game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Hennig</span> American video game director and script writer

Amy Hennig is an American video game director and script writer, 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.

<i>Dead Space</i> Video game series

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.

<i>Dead Space 3</i> 2013 video game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Condrey</span> American game designer

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 third-person action-adventure 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. Motive Studios and EA Vancouver 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 Seth Podowitz and Christopher Tin were the respective composers for the movies Dead Space: Downfall and Dead Space: Aftermath.

<i>Plants vs. Zombies</i> Video game franchise

Plants vs. Zombies is a video game franchise developed by PopCap Games, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The series follows the affiliates of David "Crazy Dave" Blazing as they use his plants to defend against a zombie invasion, led by Dr. Edgar George Zomboss. The first game, Plants vs. Zombies (2009), was developed and released by PopCap before its acquisition by EA. After PopCap Games's acquisition, EA expanded the game into a franchise with games on many different platforms.

References

  1. ↑ McWhertor, Michael (May 4, 2009). "Dead Space Devs Change Their Name To Visceral Games". Kotaku . Retrieved December 12, 2009.
  2. ↑ Simon, Mark (February 23, 1995). "EA Plans To Leave San Mateo / Game company moving to Redwood Shores". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved October 19, 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McCarthy, Caty (October 19, 2017). "The Rise and Fall of Visceral Games". US Gamer . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  4. 1 2 3 Paget, Mat (January 15, 2017). "How Resident Evil 4 turned System Shock 3 into Dead Space". PC Gamer . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  5. ↑ Nutt, Christopher (February 10, 2010). "A Distinct Vision: Nick Earl And Visceral Games". Gamasutra . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  6. ↑ Alexander, Leigh (October 13, 2010). "Interview: Earl Reveals EA's Expansion Of Visceral Label". Gamasutra . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  7. ↑ Conduit, Jessica (February 24, 2012). "All clues point to concept art for Visceral's canned Jack the Ripper title". Engadget . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  8. ↑ Reilly, Luke (September 18, 2011). "Visceral Games Melbourne Shut Down". IGN . Retrieved August 4, 2012.
  9. ↑ Chalk, Andy (October 18, 2017). "Former Visceral designer says Dead Space 2 cost $60 million and 'underperformed'". PC Gamer . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  10. ↑ Bratt, Chris (February 23, 2017). "The Dead Space 3 the developers wanted to make". Eurogamer . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  11. ↑ Makuch, Eddie (June 18, 2013). "Dead Space series not killed". GameSpot . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  12. ↑ Marchiafava, Jeff (February 21, 2013). "Update #2: Visceral Montreal Employee Confirms Entire Staff Let Go". Game Informer . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schreier, Jason (October 27, 2017). "The Collapse Of Visceral's Ambitious Star Wars Game". Kotaku . Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  14. ↑ Wales, Matt (October 17, 2017). "EA has shut down Visceral Games". Eurogamer . Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  15. ↑ Sarkar, Samit (October 18, 2017). "EA's Star Wars 'pivot' is a vote of no confidence in single-player games". Polygon . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  16. ↑ Staff (October 19, 2017). "Does Visceral's closure prove AAA single-player games are dying?". Gamasutra . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  17. ↑ Klepek, Patrick (October 17, 2017). "Today's Star Wars News Makes the Future of Single-Player Look Very Messy". Vice . Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  18. ↑ Chalk, Andy (November 1, 2017). "EA CEO says Visceral closure and 'Ragtag' cancellation wasn't about single vs. multiplayer". PC Gamer . Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  19. ↑ "EA Brings the Terror to Space in Dead Space 2". Electronic Arts. December 7, 2009. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  20. ↑ "Visceral made the End Game DLC for Battlefield 3". Reddit. June 3, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.