EA closing Visceral Studios -

Studios need to coordinate with DiCE more in order to expand the engine's capabilities. FB3 is one hell of a tool, but it does need expanded upon.

No... blaming others for what they like doesn't help the RPG cause.  People are entitled to like what they like regardless of whether or not you or I like what they like as well.  If people want companies to make RPGs, it's up to the people who like RPGs to convince them it's what they want them to make... and that won't be done by attacking the people that happen to like something else.  If there is a market for RPGs... RPGs will get made regardless of whether or not there is also a market for other types of games.  If there is a market for both, then both will be made and the gaming industry will just grow in size.

Just came across a piece of satire related to this news:

Calling it one of the most frightening displays they’ve ever seen, EA employees confirmed this week that the company has gone all out this Halloween [...] People with Chillingo, DICE, and BioWare Austin say they haven’t been able to walk down a hallway without seeing the grave marker of a developer EA purchased and drained of all its life and talent before slaughtering. With such epitaphs as 'Here lies Pandemic. They tried to Destroy All Humans, but instead we destroyed them' and 'R.I.P. EA Black Box, permanently renamed to EA Pine Box,' staff members say the decor isn't exactly getting them in the spirit of the season.

“I’ll be honest this whole thing is pretty damn chilling,” said 3D artist Fred Baxter. “On the wall of one of the stalls in the men’s room is one that reads ‘Maxis: The only kind of creature you couldn't create in Spore is one that liked the game.’ And it’s not just the tombstones. There’s also this dummy by the break room hanging by a noose with the word 'Visceral' written on its chest, but I guess that’s what you get when you try and make a linear, story-heavy game for EA in 2017.”

Not every office is getting the same festive treatment. Employees at PopCap say their desks and cubicles are free of any Halloween decorations. However, they did confirm every television in the building has been playing the horror film You’re Next nonstop since last Tuesday.



www.destructoid.com/ea-celebrates-halloween-by-decorating-offices-with-tombstones-of-developers-it-s-eliminated-fauxclusive--467600.phtml

A Mass Effect game made by CDPR, now that would be something interesting...

If we are talking about buying the rights to Mass Effect from EA, then it MIGHT be possible. I seriously doubt this'll happen but if it did, I'd be very pleasantly surprised.
Speaking of System Shock, there's a free alpha of the System Shock 1 remake on steam.

Then let's hope someone does. Speaking of remakes, a little bird told me that RE2 is getting a remake.

An Amy Hennig headed project with Jade Reymond helping out doesn't sound like something that would typically be a mess, both are known for being very good at their jobs. So if the project was a mess IDK if we can so easily just blame the studio this time like we did with Bioware Montreal. But who am I to argue with what Jason Schreier  has "heard". 

Isn't it at all suspicious that this kind of shit keeps happening with studios under EA though? Suddenly studios that have launched very successful and beloved games end up going off the rails and having their products cancelled or releasing products that are unstable at launch, disappointing to fans, commercially flop or just don't make much money. Then EA closes the studio and ships any salvageable IP's off to another studio under them who makes it into a money sink. I'm just struggling to believe that some of the best talent in the industry under one of the biggest companies in the industry was doing so bad of a job that the whole studio needed to go and the game needed to be completely changed. 

Ok in regards to your suspicion that it was unfun uk.ign.com/articles/2017/10/19/visceral-star-wars-game-was-fun-and-funny-co-writer-todd-stashwick-says

I mean sure a writer will defend their own project but then I feel like if it was a mess why would they not just say so? We all know how messy Andromeda was during it's dev time because people said so. Nobody has said anything of the sort about this other than Schreier. 

Yes Viseceral was a small time studio who made smalltime but beloved games, EA wanted to turn them into a cash generator, that didn't work out so EA closed the studio. This seems like the most likely explanation. Non of Viseceral's games are Andromeda like in any way other than when it comes to sales maybe? I also don't see a star wars game from EA doing badly even if it was actually bad. I think it truly is what we all think, it wasn't going to generate a steady flow of cash through MP, lootboxes and other nonsense. It was probably going to make a lot of money but not enough money for EA. 

I feel like what I am saying is more likely than the idea that Amy Hennig had some kind of massive off day and is at fault, somehow everyone but EA is always at fault according to a few people on this forum. 

Well, the entire point of buying Bio was to play in the RPG market segment too. OTOH, times change, and maybe that move doesn't look sensible anymore.

You may be right, unfortunately we may never know the full story in the end.

I tend to look at these kind of situations as a mix of commercial art and business, usually it's more than just one factor that is at fault from what I have seen.