During the company’s latest earnings call, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson spoke in general terms about the decision to close Visceral Games and the future of its new Star Wars game originally set with working title “Ragtag”. This topic has been covered in length already since the news first broke last month (get caught up right here if you need to) with a few quotes from EA executive vice president Patrick Söderlund. The comments made by Wilson during the earnings call are copied below and come our way via GameSpot.
On Closing Visceral Games:
“Anytime you close a studio, it’s a very, very tough decision and something that we take very seriously. We spend a lot of time working through before we make such a decision. But it does happen from time to time as part of the creative process.
On Visceral’s Star Wars Game And Why It’s Changing:
“During the development process of the game they were working on, we’ve been testing the game in concert with players, listening to feedback in terms of what and how they wanted to play. And really tracking that closely with fundamental shifts in the marketplace. We are seeing an evolution in the marketplace, and it became clear to us that to deliver an experience that players wanted to come back and enjoy for a long time, that we needed to pivot the design.
“You may have heard the conversation around single-player versus multiplayer or single-player versus live service. [The decision to close Visceral and shift the focus of their Star Wars game] wasn’t about that conversation. It wasn’t about, ‘This was just a single-player game [and it] needed to be a live service.’ It was more about, ‘How do we get to a point where the overall gameplay experience was right for players.’ We still believe strongly in the Star Wars IP.”
