Culling various anonymous quotes and information from numerous former employees, Jason Schreier over at Kotaku has posted a lengthy article detailing the impetus behind EA’s decision to close Visceral Games and re-think their Star Wars title from the ground up. Earlier we heard thoughts on the matter from a former BioWare developer, but Schreier really digs down and pulls back the curtains with his reporting.
A lot of ground is covered in Schreier’s piece, so we’re just going to focus on two aspects from the report. Electronic Arts executive vice president Patrick Söderlund had this to say about the Star Wars game which carried the working code name “Ragtag”:
This truly isn’t about the death of single-player games—I love single-player, by the way—or story and character-driven games,” said Söderlund. Storytelling has always been part of who we are, and single-player games will of course continue. This also isn’t about needing a game that monetizes in a certain way. Those are both important topics, but that’s not what this is. At the end of the day, this was a creative decision. Our job is to give people a deep enough experience and story, and it’s also to push the boundaries forward. We just didn’t think we were getting it quite right.
As for what type of game was in development by Visceral?
Everyone I asked about Ragtag’s story was unanimous about one thing: They all thought it was awesome. The lead protagonist was Dodger, described as a “cracked mirror version” of Han Solo, and over the course of the game he’d battle alongside a band of fellow misfits like Robie, a gunslinger and Dodger’s partner in crime; Oona, the daughter of a mob boss; and Buck, the veteran leader and mentor of the crew. Set between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, Ragtag would focus on the impact of Alderaan’s destruction and tell a story about criminal families, scoundrels, and action-packed heists.
