Dead Space Developer Loses Key Staff to Activision

[Keane Ng]

Dead Space Developer Loses Key Staff to Activision

Two top executives at Dead Space and Dante's Inferno developer Visceral Games have jumped ship to jobs at Activision's brand new San Francisco studio, Electronic Arts confirmed today.

Two of the key members of the top brass at Dead Space developer Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) have left for positions with an as-yet unnamed branch of Activision in the San Francisco Bay Area, EA confirmed today. General manager Glen Schofield and COO Michael Condrey had been rumored to depart for several weeks following aggressive recruiting by Activision of Visceral staff, and confirmed their departure yesterday.

Schofield in particular may figure as a dramatic blow to the structure of the company. He played a central role in the development of the studio's breakthrough game, Dead Space, and has been working on its upcoming title, Dante's Inferno, as well as other unannounced projects. "It's not a very happy day here," a Visceral Games staffer told GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6213771.html], who broke the story.

It's gotta hurt to have some of your best players switching over to your rival team, but EA says that the future is bright. "EA has been nurturing great developers for 27 years and making room for the next generation is an important part of that process," head of corporate communications Jeff Brown told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5320390/ea-not-worried-over-loss-of-dante-and-dead-space-leaders]. "It takes a team to make a great game like dead space and and there's a stunning array of talent in the Visceral studio - creative leaders who now have the opportunity to step into the spotlight and have their talent recognized."


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[Stoic raptor]

ha i read the title wrong. i thought it said a dead space guy lost his developing staff to activision. i was like WTF until i understood it

 

[squid5580]

oh noes they lost 2 out of the 100+/- people it took to make a game. And they were management? Huh it doesn't seem all that bad really.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Losing top "brass" doesn't affect the game nearly as much as losing any of the top implementers. I wouldn't worry. A GM and COO? Seriously? They have about as much impact on the game's actual development as a random forum post.

 

[VincentX3]

Hopefully this will make things better actually, so when "Dead Space 2" comes out. It will be better than the 1st.

Just...hopefully

 

[Keane Ng]

Losing top "brass" doesn't affect the game nearly as much as losing any of the top implementers. I wouldn't worry. A GM and COO? Seriously? They have about as much impact on the game's actual development as a random forum post.

No doubt, but Schofield was an executive producer on Dead Space, so it's not like he was a completely boardroom-only kind of guy - he saw the whole vision through from beginning to end.

But yeah, what EA said - there are plenty of people who made a game good, and plenty who are going to step up keep that happening.

 

[Aac18]

Its a shame to lose two people in a such a good studio, especially to Activision but at least its not within the "core" development staff (although Schofield was a great marketer for Dead Space and had at least a fair degree of importance in its development).

 

[solidstatemind]

I would imagine that, being so far up the chain, the key role those two guys played was actually getting the new IP developed and out the door. Now that DS is already tracking for the two sequels, it should be able to survive just fine, provided Schofield actually created the usual 'design bible' and roadmaps as far as the story is concerned.

 

[Terramax]

Question is, who really cares?

Were's these execs responsible for any classic, revolutionary or innovative videogames?

This is no more interesting than learning my local milkman has become a carpet cleaner.

 

[theultimateend]

So was I the only one that thought Dead Space had a terrible storyline with a painfully obvious and cliche ending?

Or was it really so shiny nobody else noticed?

 

[13lackfriday]

Well, that blows.

The first time EA genuinely shows a spark of creativity and innovation, 2 exec's jump ship for the persistently generic shitbirds at Activision.

 

[shifty89]

It appears activision is fast becoming the EA of old, my how the tables seem to be turning hmm?

 

[BakaSmurf]

As long as Dead Space 2 drops the psuedo-horror vibe and focuses on the action like it should have from the beginning (Or does some PROPER psychological horror, which almost nobody seems capable of doing nowadays), I'm fine with whatever changes are made to the dev team.

 

[Chaos Marine]

With how much a bigger bunch of ******* Activision have become, even eclipsing EA at their worst, I can't help but feel sorry for EA. Dead Space was a very good game, even if it there is almost zero replay value.