Players Don’t Like Linear Games As Much Today, EA Says Explaining Visceral Closure

I don’t think there is any publisher that is as controversial for core gamers right now as EA is, especially after they ruined Mass Effect and Star Wars Battlefront within the span of eight months. But that wasn’t all they did this year- they also closed down fan favorite studio Visceral, the folks behind Dead Space, and who had been working on an Uncharted-like Star Wars game for a while, now.

Explaining the decision to shutter the studio at the Credit Suisse 21st Annual Technology conference, Electronic Arts Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said that the game, which was going to be a very linear title, didn’t look economically feasible to the studio, since apparently, “people don’t like linear games as much today”. It was, therefore, an economic decision to close the studio, though EA is trying to retain as much of the studio’s personnel as it can by absorbing them into other units.

I think that in general, the point might be right, as demonstrated, sadly, by the Wolfenstein 2 flop- but does EA really think that a cinematic action game based on Star Wars would not have sold enough? Really?