The Future of Visceral’s Star Wars Game

Last Updated: July 13, 2018

On October 17, EA announced the closure of Visceral Games, the developer behind games such as Dead Space, Battlefield Hardline, and Dante’s Inferno. This came as disappointing news to fans of Visceral’s titles… and also to Star Wars fans looking forward to the story-driven Star Wars game Visceral had in development.

Visceral’s Star Wars Game

We didn’t know a lot about Visceral’s Star Wars game, but what we did know was intriguing. It was a linear, story-driven action-adventure game set in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. The creative director was Amy Hennig, most famous for her work on the Uncharted series, which led to much speculation that it would be an Uncharted-style game in the Star Wars universe.

Many fans theorized it might star Han Solo, while others viewed it as possibly the closest we’d get to the cancelled Star Wars 1313. Only a tiny amount of footage and concept art was ever shown, at E3 2016.

It was absent from E3 2017, with the official explanation being that this was Battlefront 2’s year.

EA’s Plans

With Visceral Games shut down, what will happen to their Star Wars game? In the official announcement, EA stated that the game will still be developed, but they are “making a significant change” to it.

Visceral’s project “was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure,” but with the change in developers, EA is “shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency.” They promise “a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth.” EA Worldwide Studios and EA Vancouver will be working on it, and the new timeline is uncertain.

To fans looking forward to the game for exactly what EA described in its initial description, the news that it will now be broader and involve more player agency may not be a welcome one. At the very least, it will no longer be a linear game (or Star Wars Uncharted), and the wording makes it easy to imagine an open world or a “games as a service” model.

Whether it will still be heavily story-driven or not is unclear, and we don’t know if Amy Hennig will still be involved with the project. Either way, EA’s Star Wars game will certainly be different than what Visceral Games’ Star Wars game would have been.

How do you feel about the closure of Visceral Games and the planned changes to their Star Wars game? Were you looking forward to it before, and are you looking forward to it now? What do you think the final game will be like? Let us know in the comments.