Earlier today, video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) surprised many by announcing that it would be closing EA Visceral. The studio, which was known for creating the Dead Space series, had been developing an untitled Star Wars game. With the closure, the question on everyone's lips is what will happen to the team and the game that it was working on?

In an update posted to the EA website, the company's executive vice president Patrick Soderlund assures fans that development on the Star Wars game will continue. However, it will do so with a new vision and under the banner of a different studio. EA Visceral's Star Wars project had been envisioned as an "action-adventure," says the executive, and in its current form it had been a "story-based, linear adventure game".

Soderlund explains that the studio had begun testing the game with players, listening to their comments and monitoring industry shifts. As a result of this feedback "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." The game still promises "stunning" graphics, and authenticity within the Star Wars series, but it will now be a "broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency."

 

The EA executive goes on to say that development on the Star Wars game will now be taken over by "a development team from across EA Worldwide Studios." EA Vancouver, a developer that has already been working on the project, will be leading this EA Worldwide Studios team as development on the game progresses. Additionally, Soderlund says that, as a result of the change, the game has a "new timeframe" instead of its planned launch in late fiscal year 2019 (FY2019 ends on September 30, 2019).

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Many have taken EA's comments to mean that the Star Wars project will no longer be a traditional story-based game and will instead become a 'games as a service' style game. Other games as a service include Destiny 2, which is supported by many post-launch updates and DLC packs. EA is also publishing BioWare's upcoming sci-fi RPG Anthem, which releases next year and is also a 'game as a service'. It's worth noting that Anthem has been compared to Star Wars.

Some will be delighted that the game may have more longevity than initially anticipated. But this certainly isn't what fans were expecting when Visceral's Star Wars game was called 'groundbreaking'. Fans may have been actively looking for a more traditional experience.

Moreover, given that many of the recently released games as a service have included controversial loot box systems (including EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2) some fans may fear that that will feature in this shifting Star Wars project too.

Nothing is certain yet and it's far too soon to speculate, but EA will have to go a long way to address fans' concerns. But at least with the Star Wars game being pushed back, EA will at least have plenty of time to get fans back on board.

Source: EA