There were some studios that were absorbed and barely given a chance to prove themselves under EA's rule, like Pandemic studios, which was shut down just one year after being acquired by EA and just before their last game, The Saboteur, was released. The list of developers that EA has absorbed and executed is staggering, especially when you consider what those studios have made over the years and how much revenue and praise their products gathered. I mentioned this in my articles about Mass Effect: Andromeda and how BioWare, a popular developer that was bought 10 years ago, may soon find itself in the same position as Visceral and so many other developers before it. ![]() Their reputation for publishing great games is overshadowed by their reputation for buying up developers and then inevitably closing them down. Yes, despite the fact that EA has a long history of publishing great games and a legacy of great titles under their belt, that belt is blood-stained. There's also no other publisher with a developer body count as high. There is probably no publisher, other than Nintendo, that has ownership over more popular and beloved video game franchises than Electronic Arts. ![]() In the process of becoming this behemoth, they've published a lot of beloved franchises. Since that time, EA has gotten bigger and bigger and has managed to become one of the three biggest third-party publishers for video games. The first game I remember playing that had their logo on it was Road Rash for the Sega Genesis. Nonetheless, a lot of gamers hate Electronic Arts, vehemently. As I'm sure I've mentioned this in the past, there were plenty of other companies to choose from that were far worse and responsible for more heinous transgressions than EA. For several years in a row, it managed to win the title of "Worst Company in America" in the online polls that Consumerist hosted. If you ask any person out their who is somewhat involved in video game culture and reads video game news, there's one company that gets more ire from the public than any other, and it's Electronic Arts. And, I want to talk about why I think the closing of one studio acts as an ill omen for what's to come in the future of video games. I want to talk about Visceral Games and their surprising demise. I want to talk about EA and their reputation as a publisher and how that's changed over time. Disclosure: I personally own a small amount of Electronic Arts' stock, and I have some personal friends who work or have worked at EA, but my direct affiliation with the company ends there.ĭespite this being a series of posts about the closure of one game developer, there's a lot to dissect here. With EA's new Star Wars initiative, it looked like Visceral Games was ready to lead the way yet again with a new single-player, story-focused Star Wars game in their wheelhouse, but after the recent announcement from their parent publisher, that project's destiny is now in limbo and the developer has been dismantled. ![]() It also was the first game that Visceral made with their new name. Dead Space is definitely the one that most players remember fondly, and it did the best financially with its multiple sequels. This initiative included Army of Two, Mirrors Edge, and Dead Space. Visceral started out as an in-house developer for EA before they got their own name to help with a marketing push for a new initiative for EA during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation of consoles, in which EA was attempting to spawn new franchises from scratch. Electronic Arts (EA), one of the biggest video game publishers, announced a few weeks ago that they were shutting down their studio: Visceral Games.
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