Wednesday, October 18th 2017
EA Shutters Visceral Studios, Pivots on Unreleased Star Wars Game Design
The death knell is sounding in Visceral Games (creators of the Dead Space series), courtesy of EA. The publishing company has shuttered another one of its studios, and is looking to move employees from Visceral to what others remain. Apparently, the Star Wars game, which had a tentative release date for 2019, was shaping up as a "story-based, linear adventure game": not that much of a surprise, considering it was being helmed by Uncharted series veteran Amy Hennig. A development team from across EA Worldwide Studios will take over development, led by a team from EA Vancouver that was already working on the project.
Apparently, EA wasn't much enjoying the way the game was developing; usually, linear, story-based games don't lend themselves much for microtransactions or loot boxes, now do they? Citing "shifts in the marketplace", EA says 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," so that it "allows for more variety and player agency." All in all, this sounds much like Destiny, or upcoming Bioware game Anthem. But it will also certainly lend itself better to further monetization, considering how it's one of the industry's most important sources of revenue.
Source:
EA Blogs
Apparently, EA wasn't much enjoying the way the game was developing; usually, linear, story-based games don't lend themselves much for microtransactions or loot boxes, now do they? Citing "shifts in the marketplace", EA says 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," so that it "allows for more variety and player agency." All in all, this sounds much like Destiny, or upcoming Bioware game Anthem. But it will also certainly lend itself better to further monetization, considering how it's one of the industry's most important sources of revenue.
44 Comments on EA Shutters Visceral Studios, Pivots on Unreleased Star Wars Game Design
May EA be damned.
Sad to see another solid dev torn to pieces
It's more like "destroy everything".
And I don't play EA titles because of Origin.
Also, MP wise, they already have Battlefront and an MMO for Star Wars... and yet still did this. And if they're now trying to chase some "Destiny market", they're going to lose again. Just like their dreams of a "WoW killer" tanked, and they never quite have a massive shooter hit like COD.
I like games that challenge the mind, not entice me to grind. I'm on the fence about Path of Exile though, where you have to grind to be able to check whether your toon is actually worthy - though that may be self-inflicted because I play solo.
Dungeon Keeper 3 anyone?
I don't know.. unless you're one of those gamers who consider even GTA an "RPG". I run into people who do that, but I don't know where they're coming from. :)
I used to frequently play a MUD (yeah, yeah.....some of you may be thinking "WTF is a MUD?" or others laughing that someone admits to even playing one this day and age), but over the past few years they heavily switched over to a micro transaction type setup for their game.
Years ago they would hold "extra" pay-type event that would go for the span of a couple weeks. Very unique places made specifically for the venue. GMs would role play characters and there'd be wide interaction between players and them. Most of these "extra" events were done a couple of years apart. People that paid a little extra, usually around $50, got access to unique areas, items and lots of role playing opportunities. I had a blast at the handful of these events that I attended.
The MUD was, and still is, subscription based. The cost of a basic subscription has varied over the years from $9.95 (once the game left AOL years back and moved directly to the web) to $14.95 today. There are tier based subscriptions, but $14.95 is the base cost to have full access to all the game has to offer in the normal, base game. Basic sub means you get 1 character, locker access and so on. You can pay an extra $20 a month on top of the basic price for a Premium account and you're allowed 15 characters, access to a premium member only area and 10% discount on "extra" event prices and a few other benefits.
A few years back the company introduced an out of game currency you can buy to apply to "special" items that can aid you in game for specific things, but these items are not needed nor are you restricted in how the normal, base game functions if you don't buy these items. They then introduced special events that no longer cost an entry fee to access it. Anyone and everyone can go to these areas, even the F2P accounts (F2P accounts have heavy restrictions on it and micro transactions at the real cash store are almost required to play the game normally if you don't want to pay $15 a month for a basic account) can come to the areas. However, here's the kicker, to participate in the games or access stores or participate with merchants you have to buy coins with real cash from the coin store - it functions much like a cell phone game. All games are based on RNG and the chance of getting any decent item is very low. People have gone from spending $50 per account to access the events to spending hundreds to thousands of dollars for the new special in game currencies that are tied to each different event so you can build up enough to purchase rare items. The actual in-game currency (silvers) you used to use to buy things at these special events because that is the in-game currency you earn from combat, selling loot and such has been so diminished by the extra special currencies that are now tied to these pay to play events that require micro transactions is that it's pointless to save up silvers for anything since they're no longer used for anything.
All events have been pushed to requiring micro transactions from the coin store now. All the special "extra" events from years ago that had so much unique interaction from GMs are gone. You basically need to pay to play and it's not just a few bucks to get anything good, you have to put in a lot of money and time. As odd as it sounds, I had two accounts and spent around $600 a year on the game (this is on the low end compared to majority of the rest of the people that play). Add another $50 every one or two years for an "extra" event I would attend. But with the change over to requiring someone to have a subscription based account, plus needing to spend hundreds of $ on coins from the store I couldn't stand it anymore and I cut ties with the game. A MUD that I've played off and on since '94....I dumped all my in game items and sold off in game silver and walked away.
TL;DR: I walked away from a MUD I've played since '94 because they moved to a heavy micro transaction pay method.
I won't play a game that requires micro transactions so you can enjoy the full functionality of a game. I'm not a game company's personal piggy bank. If they provide a quality game with a single purchase to enjoy the game in its entirety, I'll will support them and buy the game. I won't be nickle and dimed. I won't support those companies/games that require micro transactions
Haven't bought a non-GOG.com EA game since 2009[Red Alert 3, which I swiftly crack to run offline]. EA hasn't made a decent quality game since that time. Or more to the point, they haven't made a game that has made me want to give them money to deal with the acceptably foul DRM schemes.
Note to EA; Make GOOD games and lose the DRM, micro-tranactions & DLC. Then you might get some of my gaming budget again, outside of GOG. Until then, EffU!
They're not proud of some of their games either. A successful company goes out of it's way to show the sales numbers and brag. They hide that stuff, when it comes to Bioware, for example. They probably spent as much as CDProjekt on DAI ($80 million) or more, but the sales sucked. It never even reached top 10 on NPD charts. And dropped price immediately. I knew MEA was doomed before it even released... and that EA would try to keep a brave face. But they ended up having to admit how much it sucked by just shutting future development down.
You don't have to take my word for it either: investor.ea.com/releases.cfm?ReleasesType=Earnings