Visceral Games

In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved from San Mateo, California to a new corporate headquarters building that they had constructed in Redwood Shores, California.{{cite web | url = http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/EA-Plans-To-Leave-San-Mateo-Game-company-moving-3044369.php | title = EA Plans To Leave San Mateo / Game company moving to Redwood Shores | first = Mark | last = Simon | date = February 23, 1995 | access-date = October 19, 2017 | work = San Francisco Chronicle }} 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.{{cite web | url = http://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-rise-and-fall-of-visceral-games| title = The Rise and Fall of Visceral Games | first = Caty | last = McCarthy | date = October 19, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = US Gamer }} 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.{{cite web | url = http://www.pcgamer.com/how-resident-evil-4-turned-system-shock-3-into-dead-space/ | title = How Resident Evil 4 turned System Shock 3 into Dead Space | first = Mat | last= Paget | date = January 15, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = PC Gamer }}

Dead Space was a critical success, leading the studio to be rebranded to Visceral Games in 2009. 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.{{cite web | url = https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4285/a_distinct_vision_nick_earl_and_.php | title = A Distinct Vision: Nick Earl And Visceral Games | first = Christopher | last = Nutt | date =February 10, 2010 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Gamasutra }} Alongside the rebranding, two sister studios, Visceral Montreal in Montreal, Quebec alongside EA Montreal, and Visceral Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia were established.{{cite web | url = https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30961/Interview_Earl_Reveals_EAs_Expansion_Of_Visceral_Label.php | title = Interview: Earl Reveals EA's Expansion Of Visceral Label | first = Leigh | last = Alexander | date = October 13, 2010 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Gamasutra }}

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. The Ripper was confirmed to have been cancelled, potentially as early as 2009,{{cite web | url = https://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/all-clues-point-to-concept-art-for-viscerals-canned-jack-the-ri/ | title = All clues point to concept art for Visceral's canned Jack the Ripper title | first = Jessica | last = Conduit | date = February 24, 2012 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Engadget }} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/09/19/visceral-games-melbourne-shut-down|title=Visceral Games Melbourne Shut Down|publisher=IGN|last=Reilly|first=Luke|date=September 18, 2011|access-date=August 4, 2012}}

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. 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.{{cite web | url = http://www.pcgamer.com/former-visceral-designer-says-dead-space-2-cost-60-million-and-underperformed/ | title = Former Visceral designer says Dead Space 2 cost $60 million and 'underperformed' | first = Andy | last = Chalk | date = October 18, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = PC Gamer }}

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.{{cite web | url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-02-23-the-dead-space-3-the-developers-wanted-to-make | title = The Dead Space 3 the developers wanted to make | first = Chris | last = Bratt | date = February 23, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Eurogamer }} 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. Though the game still had generally positives on its release in 2013, it sold far less than Dead Space 2. 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.{{Cite web | url = https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dead-space-series-not-killed/1100-6410351/ | title = Dead Space series not killed | first= Eddie | last = Makuch | date = June 18, 2013 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = GameSpot }}

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.{{cite web | url = https://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/21/report-army-of-two-developer-suffers-layoffs.aspx | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130224024835/http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/02/21/report-army-of-two-developer-suffers-layoffs.aspx | url-status = live | archive-date = February 24, 2013 | title = Update #2: Visceral Montreal Employee Confirms Entire Staff Let Go | first = Jeff | last = Marchiafava | date = February 21, 2013 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Game Informer }} 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. A smaller team then started working on a project called Jamaica, a pirate-themed game.{{cite web | url = https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152 | title = The Collapse Of Visceral's Ambitious Star Wars Game | first = Jason | last = Schreier | date = October 27, 2017 | access-date = October 28, 2017 | work = Kotaku }}

{{main|Project Ragtag}}

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. Furthermore, Ubisoft had announced Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, which also was based on a pirate theme. 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. 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. 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. EA reassigned the Star Wars game to its EA Worldwide Studios, led by EA Vancouver, and said they will revamp the gameplay.{{cite web | url = http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-17-ea-has-shut-down-visceral-games | title = EA has shut down Visceral Games | first = Matt | last= Wales | date = October 17, 2017 | access-date = October 17, 2017 | work = Eurogamer }} 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.{{cite web | url = https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/18/16491188/ea-star-wars-visceral-games-single-player |title = EA's Star Wars 'pivot' is a vote of no confidence in single-player games | first =Samit | last = Sarkar | date = October 18, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Polygon }}{{cite web | url = https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/307836/Does_Viscerals_closure_prove_AAA_singleplayer_games_are_dying.php | title = Does Visceral's closure prove AAA single-player games are dying? | author = Staff | date = October 19, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Gamasutra }}{{cite web | url = https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/59dn78/todays-star-wars-news-makes-the-future-of-single-player-look-very-messy | title = Today's Star Wars News Makes the Future of Single-Player Look Very Messy | first= Patrick |last= Klepek |date = October 17, 2017 | access-date = October 20, 2017 | work = Vice }} 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".{{cite web | url = http://www.pcgamer.com/ea-ceo-says-visceral-closure-and-ragtag-cancellation-wasnt-about-single-vs-multiplayer/ | title = EA CEO says Visceral closure and 'Ragtag' cancellation wasn't about single vs. multiplayer | first = Andy | last = Chalk | date = November 1, 2017 | access-date = November 1, 2017 | work = PC Gamer }}

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{{Visceral Games}}

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Category:1998 establishments in California

Category:2017 disestablishments in California

Category:Companies based in Redwood City, California

Category:Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Defunct computer companies based in California

Category:Defunct video game companies of the United States

Category:Electronic Arts subsidiaries

Category:Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Video game companies based in California

Category:Video game companies disestablished in 2017

Category:Video game companies established in 1998

Category:Video game development companies