Electronic Arts’ chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen spoke at the annual Credit Suisse conference in Arizona recently discussing various topics such as how well EA is doing in the current quarter, and the controversy behind the recently released Star Wars Battlefront II.
One of those topics included the fate of Visceral Games, the studio behind the iconic Dead Space series that was working on a Star Wars game, codenamed Ragtag, before being shut down. When asked to elaborate on the details, Jorgensen stated:
We were trying to build a game that really pushed gameplay to the next level, and as we kept reviewing the game it continued to look like a style of gaming, a much more linear game that people don’t like as much today as they did five years ago or ten years ago.
Because of this, Jorgensen decided based purely on “economics” that the game would not make a return on investment due to that linear style, which resulted in the shuttering of Visceral.
However, this is not the only reason why Visceral collapsed. Engine difficulties with DICE’s frostbite, poor management, and clashing styles of how the game would play all laid the foundation for the studio that employed 80 people to crumble.
Source: Credit Suisse via VG247
Right, people won’t buy The Last of Us 2 either because it’s a linear game. These morons keep shooting themselves in the foot.
Basically what he meant was, “With a straight story driven narrative we didn’t see enough room to cram in enough micro-transactions and loot boxes”.
Pretty much. If they cannot monetize it past launch then it’s useless to them.
Sad times 🙁
Don’t go forgetting about TLOU’s killer multiplayer component! That was great!
Right, people won’t buy The Last of Us 2 either because it’s a linear game. These morons keep shooting themselves in the foot.
Basically what he meant was, “With a straight story driven narrative we didn’t see enough room to cram in enough micro-transactions and loot boxes”.
Don’t go forgetting about TLOU’s killer multiplayer component! That was great!
Pretty much. If they cannot monetize it past launch then it’s useless to them.
Sad times 🙁