On Friday a source from EA’s Melbourne studio, Visceral Games, told Kotaku that the studio was being shut down this week. Today, EA has confirmed the closure.
An EA spokesperson told MCV: “With no active project in development at that location, we’ve decided to close the Visceral Melbourne office. They are talented individuals and may find other roles elsewhere in EA, if they choose.”
“EA continues to maintain its mobile studios in Melbourne which are both thriving and hiring.”
As we understand, the closure of Visceral does not affect any of EA’s other Australian studios like Firemint and Iron Monkey.
Our original report can be read here.
[MCV]
Zar
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:05 AMBut, Deadspace!
thorn
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 5:43 PMi agree but deadspace…………..a third game would be awesome or even part 2 to dante’s inferno shall be called [dante's Purgatorio/purgatory] if ever made
PuppyLicks
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:11 AMDoes this refer to just the Aus Visceral studio or both studios?
Tracey Lien
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:11 AMJust Melbourne.
Richard
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:13 AMVisceral is such a bad name, the California studio should have stuck with Electronic Arts Redwood Shores. EARS sounds badass.
Fenixius
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:17 AMDid the Aussie branch do anything specific, or simply perform complementary work? I can’t find anyone saying what specific contributions were given by Visceral Melbourne to the games that Visceral Games worked on.
Richard
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:34 AMI’m pretty sure they worked on the PC version of Dead Space, not content stuff.
The other article, though, says that “Visceral Games had been working on a AAA game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 for the past three years”.
PuppyLicks
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:35 AMThey did a lot of work on Dead Space 2 and I think Dante’s Inferno as well.
I think they were like a co-studio, so they shared the workload with the US studio. I figure they didn’t get an individual credit because they were probably seen officially as part of the same studio team.
Fenixius
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:15 AMAlways a sorrowful morning when you wake up and read about the closure of an Aussie studio. Good luck, folks once-of Visceral.
Lord Crumplebottom
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:18 AMAnother one?!
What the hell is going on???
Akra
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:22 AMAussie Games industry is getting a kick in the teeth, hopefully the sudden closer of so many studios and so many new unemployed people looking for jobs in an ever increasingly popular field will alert someone in Canberra.
But.. yeah :(
Batguy
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:37 AMOur developers are too expensive by global standards, due to a combination of limited funds globally and a sustained high exchange rate?
Not just happening to game studios either. I know plenty of devs who are losing their jobs due to US companies closing Australian offices.
Lone Wolf
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:26 AMOkay, I can understand closing a studio if it has nothing to do, but why aren’t the employees being kept within the organisation?
Why are EA hoping “they may find other roles elsewhere within EA” instead of finding their loyal employees positions?
It would make a better thank you than a freaking press release.
Okay, I may be misreading, but it still sounds cold.
Shane
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:31 AMThis. Agreed.
Because a public press release is the same thing as internal communication??
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:54 AMAre you insane? Of course they’d be hoping to hold on to talent. They explicitly say that they’re hiring in their other studios.
You really think they’d publicly share private details like that?
Good luck to them if they don’t want to move into iphone dev and want to stay in melbourne tho!!
Leigh
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:27 AM“EA continues to maintain its mobile studios in Melbourne which are both thriving and hiring.”
At least call them by their actual names, sheesh.
Gerard
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:52 AMDo we have any Aussie developers left?!?
*clutches on to teddy bear*
Why do they abandon us?
Alinos
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 12:06 PMBecause were expensive why pay an Australian 30 bucks an hour when you can pay an American 20 the real issue is the exchange rate since they are essentially paying us in US dollars but at Australian numbers
Note no idea of real Wage numbers but the point still stands and its more than just the games industry
Anything that isn’t location specific has the same issues in a multi-nat
Since you could make games in Uganda If you wanted to
George
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 2:06 PMBut if the whole exchange rate thing is the reason why studios are being closed down, why weren’t EA/THQ/Whoever investing in Aussie studios when OUR dollar was at like 50c compared to the US dollar?
I think it’s a load of bull to be honest.
Draus
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 4:19 PMThey were investing, just not in AAA games or games a lot of people have heard of.
Tehanu
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:55 AMWill publishes quit closing studios who make games that, while imperfect, I’ve actually enjoyed…
Visceral, Kaos, etc…
Tehanu
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 11:55 AMWill publishes quit closing studios who make games that, while imperfect, I’ve actually enjoyed…
Visceral, Kaos, etc…
Nic Healey
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 12:07 PMSo, what local studios (other than mobile) are still around?
Not cool, dude
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 12:42 PMYou’re either trolling, or you legitimately don’t know.
Either way, extremely unprofessional for someone that calls themselves an editor at a games/tech outlet.
crab meat
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 3:04 PMcalling pc authority a games/tech outlet seems intentionally misleading or you legitimately don’t know much about the magazine. they do write about games, but it isn’t a significant amount. knowledge of all existing australian developers isn’t as important as you make it out to be
George
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 2:03 PM“Hey look, we’re EA the multi-million dollar company. Let’s buy some very talented small studios overseas, use them for a bit, and then discard their shriveled carcass just because it’s fun”
RocK_M
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 9:55 PMSounds like pretty much all of the “big” publishers these days <.<
Oh we can't abuse and churn out your IP w/ mindless sequals? Original work? Thats way too much effort! Good bye studio!
Lillee
Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at 9:44 AMThanks for one of the best games in recent times.