Information on Visceral’s Star Wars title and its cancellation have come to mild, with one former worker calling it a “mercy killing.”
News of Visceral Game’s closure and the cancellation of its Star Wars title have been announced last week. Now, new info on the linear single-player recreation and the lead as much as its demise have come to mild.
It appears the sport didn’t begin off as a Star Wars title, however a pirate-themed open-world affair. Around that point, Assassin’s Creed four: Black Flag was releases, and EA had acquired the rights to develop Star Wars titles.
At this level, in response to former Visceral staff speaking with Kotaku under anonymity, the sport was modified from starring people waving the Jolly Roger to no matter flag area pirates within the Star Wars universe would fly.
During this time, the event crew was break up so Visceral Games might work on Battlefield Hardline. Once the latter was launched, the crew engaged on the Star Wars title was nonetheless quick handed as work on put up launch updates and content material have been developed for Hardline.
When Uncharted writer Amy Hennig joined the team, the sport shifted from an open-world title to a linear action-adventure game with heavy story parts. Project Ragtag as it was known afterward, would revolved round a heist starring a Han Solo sort fella named Dodger and his crew – which were also playable.
When not being performed, AI would would take over the opposite characters. The story was set between the occasions of story set between the unique Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.
At some level between the shortage of manpower; an enormous scope; Hennig being unfold skinny; an excessive amount of strain from executives on single-player marketability; improvement adjustments; a slow-paced approval course of; Frostbite points with a third-person perspective; the price of sustaining a studio in San Francisco; and flat company construction on the studio, all of it got here crashing down.
Eventually, the title was cancelled and Visceral shutdown. One former worker mentioned the destiny of the Star Wars titles was “a mercy killing,” as the sport simply wasn’t as much as par. “It had nothing to do with whether it was gonna be single player,” they mentioned.
Another former worker mentioned when all was mentioned and carried out, the sport would have seemingly value someplace round $100 million if dropped at completion. “Ultimately, the idea of doing a game of this scope, this expense, this fidelity, at this studio never made sense,” they mentioned.
A press release given to Kotaku from EA EVP Patrick Soderlund reiterates the cancellation of the sport having nothing to do with Codename Ragtag being a single-player title.
“This truly isn’t about the death of single-player games—I love single-player, by the way—or story and character-driven games,” mentioned Soderlund. “Storytelling has at all times been a part of who we’re, and single-player video games will after all proceed.
“At the end of the day, this was a creative decision. Our job is to give people a deep enough experience and story, and it’s also to push the boundaries forward. We just didn’t think we were getting it quite right.”
Development of the Star Wars title Visceral was engaged on might be handed over to improvement groups throughout EA Worldwide Studios, led by EA Vancouver which has additionally been engaged on the undertaking. It gained’t be a linear action-adventure title although, as previously reported, however one that includes a “broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency.”
If you hit up the hyperlink to Kotaku you possibly can learn the piece in full which predicates points had materialized at Visceral in 2013, lengthy earlier than Project Ragtag.
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