Visceral grows, working on four new titles

By Fred Dutton Published 13 October, 2010

EA: Gamers love the brand.

EA has announced ambitious expansion plans for Dead Space developer Visceral Games.

EA exec Nick Earl told Gamasutra that Visceral, who also made last year's Dante's Inferno, would become EA's dedicated third person action developer, producing at least a game a year.

Five executive producers will each oversee a separate franchise at the California-based studio.

"We've gone to this collaborative model, all under the umbrella brand of Visceral," Earl explained.

"Each of the franchises we have in development, from Dead Space 2, which is close to final, to some IP that are literally in ideation... has a distinct team, and that team is spread across three or four studios. We're not outsourcing or insourcing - we really look at it as collaborative development, where everyone is on equal playing ground."

One of the five brands Earl referred too is obviously Dead Space, but there's no confirmation on what the other four might be.

Earlier this week, Visceral's Zach Mumbach stated that the studio was not currently working on a follow-up to Dante's Inferno, ruling that franchise out of the running.

However, last year EA revealed that Visceral had begun work on a game based around infamous 19th-century serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Visceral will be sharing resources with EA Los Angeles, EA Montreal, the publisher's art-focused Shanghai studio and its brand new outpost in Melbourne, Australia.

The reason for this show of good faith? Apparently gamers just can't get enough of Visceral's work.

"We believe - and we have a lot of data on this - that there's tremendous admiration and like for the Visceral brand," says Earl. "We're leaning in to the fact that there's such momentum with this brand, and we have a lot of faith in Dead Space 2."

The original Dead Space won a 7/10 from Eurogamer, whereas Dante's Inferno could only manage 6/10.

You can find out for yourself whether EA are backing the right horse when Dead Space 2 arrives on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on 25th January 2011.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • gjgjg #1 2 years ago

    Well I'll be getting DS2, as long as they don't slip into a routine of tring to force these things out the door then this should be a winner

  • TriggerHippie #2 2 years ago

    "EA: Gamers love the brand."

    Gamers love good games. Fanboys love brands.

  • Oh-Bollox #3 2 years ago

    Amen, TH, just what I came here to say. They see profit to be made, so they up production. They don't care if this means quality falls off, they just want yearly revenue, like from their FIFA/NBA/NFL/NHL games.

    The Jack the Ripper game sounds excellent, I can't wait. I'm going to try and beat it to market with my own title John Wayne Gacy: An American Hero, mind you.

  • DreadedWalrus #4 2 years ago

    "They don't care if this means quality falls off, they just want yearly revenue, like from their FIFA/NBA/NFL/NHL games"

    To be fair to EA, they have postponed NBA Elite 11 indefinitely (it was due to be released on Friday) based on the extremely negative feedback of the demo, saying "We are going to keep working until we're certain we can deliver a breakthrough basketball experience". Obviously that's partly marketing spin, but if they just cared about the money they would surely release the game, get their money for that year's game, and then work on making the next game the revolutionary one. As it stands, NBA Elite 11 has been put back indefinitely, therefore missing the start of the NBA season, which is obviously a huge financial blow for the sake of actual quality.

    EA are a lot better now than the EA of old when it comes to the balance of quality/money.

  • Oh-Bollox #5 2 years ago

    which is obviously a huge financial blow

    Why? There another big NBA title out there everyone else is going to buy instead? Those who are going to buy NBA 2011 will wait. If FIFA was delayed, fair enough, you could say more people would pick up Pro Evo, but I didn't think there were that many basketball games out there that would rival NBA 2011.

  • darkmorgado #6 2 years ago

    As long as they support Viscreal and allow them creative freedom, and don't force them into a schedule of annual updates *cough kuntcik cough* then I am all for this.

    I like that EA seem to be showing a focus on the developer rather than the publisher - something that has been lost in recent years. Something which, ironically, Kuntick recently tried to criticise them for by saying they destroy dev identity.

  • DreadedWalrus #7 2 years ago

    "There another big NBA title out there everyone else is going to buy instead?"

    Yes. 2K Sports' NBA 2K11. Which has a Metacritic rating of 90, and has been selling like mad. See Gamasutra's analysis of sales figures here: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30863...
    Edited by DreadedWalrus at 14/10/10 @ 02:17

  • Sevens #8 2 years ago

    Seems a tad extreme. Their evaluation and strategy are questionable.

  • Oh-Bollox #9 2 years ago

    TY, DW, had no idea there was any competition left!

  • sfp_noodle #10 2 years ago

    Dead Space and Dante's Inferno, two games criminally underscored by Eurogamer, especially the former. For me, Dead Space was a Resi 4 killer, and that was formerly my greatest action horror game of all time. That's how highly I rated Dead Space. I'm certain a lot of gamers feel the same way

  • Lunastra78 #11 2 years ago

    In hindsight, a 7/10 for Dead Space must feel pretty embarrassing by now? C'mon, no one will think less of you if you suddenly spill some electronic ink and make it a 9...

    Dante's is a 6 though, I'll agree with that.

  • Collymilad #12 2 years ago

    Yep. Dead Space was worth far more than a 7/10.

    My game of 2008.

  • thebuttonz #13 2 years ago

    Ideation? I that a word? I don't care - I'm using it!

  • Shakey_Jake33 #14 2 years ago

    I tend to stay out of the complaining about review scores, but 7/10 is a bit headscratching.

    I think what is often overlooked is that whilst a game can sell badly at launch, a truely good game can end up being a bit of a slowburner, and sell a decent amount in the long run once publishers have found the right pricepoint. Dead Space is an example of this, so is Mirror's Edge (and both have sold phenomenally well every time they've been on offer on Steam). I suspect EA have come to notice this, and have chosen to stick by the IP. This is quite a new phenomena, and it is a positive thing that decent, underperforming titles are no longer written off if launch sales are poor.

  • I\'mListening #15 2 years ago

    7 for Dead Space, 8 for RDR : some of the review scores on this site can be miles off :/

  • Quint2020 #16 2 years ago

    The original Dead Space deserved at least an 8 in my opinion, damn good game.

  • JayKwon #17 2 years ago

    Well they're right, I actually love the brand indeed. I like their name, I like their games, I like what they'r doing. Yeah definitely!

  • mkreku #18 2 years ago

    What was wrong with Read Dead Redemption's 8/10?

  • darleysam #19 2 years ago

    Almost sounds a bit like a more regimented Valve.. I like the sound of it, and hope they can keep making good games.

  • nuanimal #20 2 years ago

    Too big too fast?