When you look at EA's statement, it seems like they want to make Destiny: Star Wars Edition... I don't have a problem with that, but it's a shame that it came at the expense of Amy Henning's (The creator of Uncharted) Star Wars project. I believe that it was 2013 when Disney awarded EA the exclusive license for 10 years. They immediately put Dice & Visceral to work of projects and later added a project to Respawn. With the cancellation of the Visceral project that was due in 2019, that gives EA very little time to get this proposed shared world shooter out and prove it's a success before it's time to begin negotiations on continuing their exclusivity with Disney. My understanding is that while Battlefront, the only game EA managed to get out thus far using that license was not as successful as hoped and I attribute that directly to the lack of single player. I think it's too late for EA to pivot and that their contract with Disney is in trouble. Seriously... I have played maybe 2 games from EA on my PS4... a very forgettable Need 4 Speed iteration and Mass Effect Andromeda, which was very lackluster. And now they've killed the studio that brought us Deadspace. They really need to get it together over there.
Yeah, it makes me fear for other single player story games. Maybe big budget doesn't have a place for them anymore, and it's all about chests. It's almost made me pay 60 bucks for Wolfenstein as the new single player only story game coming out.
Battlefield Bad Company was pretty good, but that was quite a while ago. If they know what's good for them they will keep a tight grip on Amy Henning.
Yes. But it's reported to be short. A few hours and you're done. The main emphasis is still on multiplayer and the new loot boxes. The single player campaign was added because people would not shut the fuck up about it. They are trying to appease the fans but personally I think they are going to fail. People were also complaining that you couldn't play offline against bots. They half-assed added offline to Battlefront but it was terrible. It looks like they did they same thing again for BF2. I refuse to pre-order the game like I did for the first one. I want to see what it's like after it comes out.
Here is a really REALLY long piece on the fall of Visceral from Jason Schrier at Kotaku. It sounds like there were a lot more problems than it being a single player game. Budget, manpower, the location of the studio. Amy Hennig trying to make it Naughty Dog 2. https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152
I will definitely read that, but let’s face it, Naughty Dog 2 would be a step up for Visceral. And I’m still not convinced that the Frostbite game engine is as flexible as EA needs it to be... just look at how clunky Mass Effect Andromeda was/is after 5 freakin’ years in development... I believe Kotaku had an expose on its troubled development too.
There were a lot of talented people at Visceral and it's a shame they're gone, but from what I pick up from a buddy who worked there a lot of the rumours about difficulties in the company are true.
