Read Time:16 Minute, 9 Second

All computer news on PCNews.ru. All new information about computers and information technology. Syndication of news, articles, press releases from all computer (IT or IT) sites.

Nothing personal – just business”: How Electronic Arts created and destroyed the Visceral Games studio 06/22/2021 10:47

Now the mention of Electronic Arts (EA) causes many associations, first of all, with monotonous stagnant sequels and endless microtransactions. But this was not always the case: for a long time, the publisher was loved by gamers and respected by industry representatives. In the 80s and 90s, EA built a lucrative business out of sports video game franchises (such as Madden and FIFA) and helped launch cult titles and talented developers like Will Wright (SimCity), Peter Molyneux (Theme Park), Richard Garriott, and Warren Spector.
Among this galaxy was the studio Visceral Games – the creators of the cult Dead Space series. The story of how the once-pocket studio EA was able to assert itself, create a popular original game, and then was forced to change course several times, obeying the demands of the bosses, until it eventually closed, is a textbook case indicative of the modern AAA industry. -games. Under the cut – the main thing from Jason Schreier's investigation dedicated to Visceral Games.

Visceral Games was formed from a development team that Electronic Arts moved into its new headquarters in Redwood City in 1998. The first project of the division, called EA Redwood Shores, was the fantasy shooter Future Cop: LAPD (1998), set in a futuristic Los Angeles setting. Thanks to the multiplayer mode (players competed online), the game became almost the first MOBA project in history, anticipating the future DOTA and League of Legends. However, it did not become a commercial success, and in the following years the division focused on working with third-party titles and licenses: the Tiger Woods PGA Tour sports sim, the Lord of the Rings games, the James Bond 007 and F1 franchises, and a number of other projects that did not leave a significant mark in the history of video games.

Future Cop: LAPD

Search for uniqueness

In October 2008, what the studio workers had long dreamed of finally happened. The Redwood Shores team led by Michael Condrey and Glen Scofield have released Dead Space, a sci-fi third-person shooter inspired by the System Shock and Resident Evil series. In the story, you play as scientist Isaac Clarke, who arrived on the Ishimura spaceship sending a distress signal, and encounter Necromorphs, which the crew members have turned into under the influence of an alien infection. The game did not become a bestseller (as EA later reported, it sold only a million copies in the first few months, well below the publisher's expectations), but it received rave reviews, and this was a decisive factor. According to critics, Dead Space revived the genre of survival horror (survival horror) and managed to create an amazing atmosphere of fear.

DEAD Space screenshot

The next year, EA Redwood Shores was renamed Visceral Games: a small rebranding, symbolizing a studio of his own voice. In the wake of the success of Dead Space, the newborn studio began production continuation. According to Schreyer's interlocutors, it was a golden time: the growth of independence, rights and opportunities inspired all employees. In parallel with the development of the sequel, the studio released the slasher Dante “S Inferno – a free rethinking of the plot of the“ Divine Comedy ”, in which the hero goes to hell to save the soul of Beatrice, along the way to destroy the crowds of various demons (as a result, the game received mixed reviews).

Dead Space 2

Dead Space 2 came out in 2011 and turned out to be even more successful than the original game. But, alas, not enough to impress EA bosses and recoup costs. As in the history of Warren Spector, the leadership of the corporation needed a blockbusters games, Home-Rana, showing shareholders the exponential growth of profits. “The worst of all in EA is that if you brought the company this year $ 10 million, then this is cool, and if the next year you brought the same amount, then you are not successful.”

Market economy

In 2011, the video game market changed radically. Production has become much more expensive, especially in the San Francisco area, stuffed with technological companies. Once the flagships of the industry, linear single -user games began to be perceived as unjustifiably risky products – that is why some publishers began to make attempts to introduce a multi -user regime (such as 2K regarding The Bureau: Xcom Declassified and Bioshock Infinite). Another problem was the development of the market for used games. The largest Gamestop retail network was welded on the resale of games without listing anything to the publishers – and for many of them it was tantamount to piracy. It was impossible to close or dry the Gamestop then, it was still far from a large -scale digital distribution, so I had to resort to another trick: to reduce the value of already activated games.

One of the most sophisticated schemes was the Online Pass: the publisher put a piece of code with a code in a box with a game that gave access to loaded content or multiplayer regime. It was possible to use the code only once, so those who still purchased a “used one”, for receiving such a pass, had to be paid separately, directly to the publisher. Dead Space 2 was one of the first games with this scheme (the pass gave the opportunity to play in the multiplayer). Moreover, when, after the relative success of the game, it came to the production of a third part, EA set the task of implementing a full-fledged coop mode for the developers, of course, if there is an online transmission. In addition, the developers were asked to make a smaller horror and more action: it was expected that the new part could win the attention of a wide audience and reach 5 million copies sold.

Dead Space 3

Alas, Triklle could not take this bar, and he received the reviews. The franchise did not reach exponential growth, which means, from the point of view of EA, did not deserve further development and support. Work on the continuation of Dead Space was frozen. Visceral Games branches outside the United States were closed, and the head office in San Francisco became too expensive. The wage fund (approximately 100 employees), rent and overhead costs for the maintenance of the office were pulled by $ 19 million a year – too much compared to income. Although, on the other hand, the annual budget of the studio could easily be closed by the salary of two or three members of the EA: Executive Director John Richitarlo earned $ 9.5 million in 2012, and Frank Gibo-$ 9.8 million.

New turn

But there was another chance to rectify the situation. In 2013, after the failure of the game Army of Two: Devil “S Cartel (by the way, the project was condemned for an unsuccessful cooperative mode), almost the entire Visceral team was transferred to the development of Battlefield Hardline – a new game from the popular franchise of the shooters. If the studio manages to make a commercially successful product, then (supposed) it will be able to do its own projects. It would seem that making a shooter on patterns is not the most difficult task for such a creative team. Nevertheless, for some employees, this turned out to be a stumbling block: many came to Visceral specifically in order to make original plot adventure games, and not the first -person shooters. It was a different approach and another mentality, and as a result, the studio lost a number of employees.

Zach Mumbah

However, there were those who stayed and continued to work hard. Among them is the developer of Zach Mumbah, a kind of hero of the story of Schreyer. He got into the studio completely green, in the 2000th year: Zach was in love with games, made mods on Duke Nukem, and almost by pure chance became a tester in EA. The workaholism of Zak did not go unnoticed: a few years later he headed the QA unit, and then became a producer in the same unit from which Visceral Games grew. All these years he remained faithful to work and invested all himself, all his free time to search for optimal solutions. By the time of Visceral, his own projects were selected, Zach worked in the studio for 13 years and considered it a duty to be extremely responsible even to those projects imposed by EA. At Battlefield Hardline, he was instructed to control the development of multiplayer – and he infected his own workaholism and immersion in the work of all employees. It was both good and bad. On the one hand, the work was in full swing, the project was moving, and no one could blame the team in ineffective work. In a situation where EA and other major publishers without hesitation closed the studios and threw hundreds of developers into the street – this was an important indicator. But on the other hand, the culture of workaholism gave rise to a culture of endless processing, penny, which became something for granted, creating guilt in those who wanted to work according to ordinary graphics and could not remain after work.

Zach himself guessed about the viciousness of the workaholism system. He once liked to compare the video game industry to professional sports: in both fields, those who give their profession all the time are successful, like the legendary Kobe Bryant, who, in order to achieve success, almost lived in the gym. However, if Bryant's remuneration was $ 25 million a year, then the salaries of obsessed Visceral developers were much more modest. And, what is even more significant, their bosses did not work six days a week and not 12 hours a day, but like normal people – and at the same time received salaries ten times more.

Anyway, Battlefield Hardline came out in March 2015. Sales were going well, EA management was happy, the studio stayed afloat. Part of the team was transferred to a new project, codenamed Ragtag, the other part (including Mumbach) was left to support and develop multiplayer, but by the end of the year it became clear that Ragtag was more important.

Reboot not possible

The history of this project is another good example of bad management and questionable decisions. Such cases are common in the gaming industry, but it is not customary to talk about them (they say, a normal workflow), despite the fact that thousands of employees who have to lose their jobs, face severe psychological problems or leave the industry become victims of such episodes .

Ragtag concept art

The Ragtag project began back in 2013, when Disney bought out Lucasfilm, and with it the mega-popular Star Wars franchise. One of the results of the deal was the closure of the legendary LucasArts studio, the cancellation of all its projects (including the expected Star Wars 1313 game) and the transfer of development rights to three studios: DICE, BioWare and Visceral. The last to go was the Ragtag project, a heist adventure game, a kind of Ocean's Eleven in the Star Wars setting, whose heroes were supposed to be minor characters in the Star Wars universe. Amy Hennig, who took part in the creation of the popular Uncharted series, was involved in the production. Seesaw Visceral rushed in the opposite direction: most recently they were forbidden to continue Dead Space and create story games, and now, on the contrary, they were transferred from a shooter to an adventure campaign. But what to do – but the studio received a mandate to save jobs and the opportunity to work quietly on one of the coolest brands. Or so it seemed.

But the period of stability was short-lived. In addition to production problems (lack of staff and the technical imperfection of the Frostbite engine on which the game was made), ideological conflicts also arose. The developers wanted the game to be single-player and look harsh, ascetic, without fan service, furry monsters and Jedi. EA management, on the contrary, demanded the inclusion of specific characters in the game: according to marketers' reports, focus groups wondered why the same Chewbacca was not in the game.And of course, the creators needed to introduce a multi -user regime that would provide protection against the secondary market.

Visceral again faced the Identity Crisis. For many years, the studio created license games until finally came up with Dead Space. But then Battlefield Hardline followed, because of which many experts had to leave Visceral. The leadership had to rebuild the production process and attract new employees with experience in the first -person shooters (FPS). And now, three years later, Visceral was well versed in FPS, – and instead she was instructed to create an adventure action from a third party. Will another “perestroika” turn out?

Amy Hennig

By 2017, it became obvious that Ragtag stalled. The Vincial team was sent to the help of the EA developers from the Vancouver office, and they began to dictate their design and technical solutions. Fierce discussions did not lead to significant progress: it was clear to everyone that the situation would be resolved if something significant happened. For example, Amy Hennig will leave the project. Or the development will be transferred to Vancouver. Or a third party will join the project. But no one even suspected how this story would end.

On October 15, Zak Mumbakha and his wife had a second son, and the next day one of the bosses of EA came to his house. Not to congratulate or give a corporate gift, but to report the upcoming closure of the studio and the cancellation of Ragtag. The next morning, other employees were announced about this. According to the managers (the meeting was fed by Patrick Sederlund and Jade Ramond), the video game market changed abruptly again, and EA was no longer going to invest in the development of linear single -user games, with the only campaign, after which the player could sell the game the same Gamestop. The new guideline was the recently released Playerunknown “S Battlegrounds, which in a short time managed to become megapopular and bring fabulous income to the authors.

A little later it turned out that he was still behind this event. It turned out that EA was negotiating the purchase of Respawn studio, with which she previously worked on the games of the Titanfall series. In addition to continuing the series, the studio was instructed to create an adventure action by a third person based on Star Wars, with Jedi, light swords and the participation of well -known characters – later this game was released as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Partly, the deal was forced: according to rumors, Respawn received an offer from the Korean Nexon Corporation, and if EA had not put forward a generous oncoming offer ($ 400 million and the right to work on the game in Star Wars), she would have lost her investment in Titanfall.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Is there life after aaa

In any case, Visceral was closed, employees were paid benefits, someone was offered places in other EA projects, and someone went to look for work in other companies and areas. For Zach Mumbakha, who gave the work at EA for seventeen years, it was time for rethinking what was connected with the video game industry.While workaholics like him gave up everything and worked seven days a week to become the Kobe Bryants, those who left work at 5:00 sharp got their paychecks. The reward that Mumbach was paid seemed very solid, but in the conditions of San Francisco prices, it only allowed them to survive. Most of his colleagues spent the lion's share of the money on rent and paying bills, and few could even dream of owning their own housing. Zak realized that the people behind game studios were the least of their worries about making great games and the people who make them. The main thing that interests bosses is momentary profit.

“These guys are playing their own games—budget games, revenue games, cost cutting games. They fire or hire people in batches just to report on a successful quarter.”

Concept art of the indie project Airborne Kingdom

One of the logical outcomes for Zach Mumbach personally was that he was unable to continue working in AAA projects. After a month as a producer at Crystal Dynamics (where he was invited by an old friend), he realized that he could not devote himself entirely to the profession, as before, and was forced to leave the industry. Together with his family, Mumbach moved to an island in the Seattle area and got a job in an architectural firm. Here, in the bosom of nature, he was finally able to work according to a normal schedule and find time for his family and growing children. However, now he was constantly tormented by the thought that he was moving in the wrong direction, that he had betrayed himself and his youthful dreams. Zak continued to follow the industry, the work of former colleagues and still called himself a game developer on social networks. When Ben Vander, his Visceral friend, released Case of Distrust as an indie developer, Zach asked to join his team as an assistant – without any payment, just to keep faith in himself and somehow remain involved to gamedev. Every day, after putting the kids to bed, he worked for hours on a new Wander game. By the summer of 2020, the game had raised additional funding, allowing Zack to leave the architecture firm and become a full-time developer again.

However, Mumbach does not want to return to work on AAA games. He's not going to work for executives with exorbitant salaries and worry about the profits of corporations like EA. According to Zach, independence is the right decision, and it is independent developers who will make the best games.

Conclusion

The history of Visceral is a vivid illustration of the fact that even studios with strong projects can lose themselves and, after a series of successes, be in danger of closing. The Visceral team had to change the staff, structure, projects, adjusting to the market and the requirements of the publishers, and in the end it still ended up out of work. No matter how cool the studio is and whoever is at the helm (even if it is a world-famous baseball star with unlimited funding), in the gaming industry, you can find yourself in the epicenter of a “tornado of instability” at any time.
Privatebin – because ignorance – good1.3.5privatebin is a minimalistic Open Source project for creating notes, where the server does not know anything about the stored data. Data is encrypted/deciphered in a browser using 256 Bit encryption AES. You can find out more on the project website.

VPS servers from Maclaud are fast and safe.

Register at the link above or clicking on the banner and get a 10% discount for the first month of rental of a server of any configuration!