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RIP ‘Dead Space’ Dev Visceral Games
Sad news for those fans of Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno, as EA has decided to close down Visceral Games. The reasoning for the closure is due to the nature of Visceral’s current project, a single-player Star Wars game, and the view based on “fundamental shifts in the marketplace” that require EA to “pivot the design”. That game will now be headed up by EA Vancouver.
Visceral Games started out as EA’s Redwood Shores studio. The studio changed its name to Visceral Games in 2009 following the release of Dead Space in 2008. Their catalog of games ranges from the previously mentioned Dead Space series and Dante’s Inferno, to licensed games based on films like The Godfather and Lord Of The Rings. Recently, the company spent time working on DLC for Battlefield and the spin-off Battlefield Hardline.
Obviously, anyone who’s been around the industry knows that this happens on occasion, and EA is no stranger to situations like these. Studios like Maxis, Bullfrog, Pandemic, Origin and Westwood have all been laid to rest under EA’s watch, mostly due to poor performance of those studios’ games. And after the lukewarm reception to Dead Space 3, and the franchise’s subsequent hibernation, it seemed like it was only a matter of time.
— Visceral Games (@VisceralGames) October 17, 2017
This story was originally posted on Plenty Dreadful. Head there for more horror video game goodness!
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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