Visceral Games, formerly EA Redwood Shores, were in a rut under the James Bond license reveals EA Games president Frank Gibeau, now we have Dead Space.
If it weren’t for losing the franchise to Activision back in ‘06, the studio would never have developed the ”very highly rated, critically acclaimed” horror game. Team given IP freedom.
”You know, the Dead Space team created a very highly rated, critically acclaimed game last year that we’re going to succeed and continue to grow as a franchise. That was the team that was working on the Bond games, you know. They were constrained by that license,” Gibeau told Gamasutra.
”Kind of when we said, “Alright, we’re moving off of that business. We’re gonna give the license back. We don’t want to be in this business anymore. You guys get to go create an IP. Let’s see what you can do.”
It’s here the EA Games boss man admits he ”never thought that that team at Redwood Shores was that talented.” With Dead Space ”the quality just blew people away.”
”One of the coolest things in our culture is that we were able to uncork that passion for product again by just turning teams loose. In some cases it worked, and in some cases, you know, we had some issues.” Are you glad a ditched Bond led to Dead Space?
