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Dead Space creator EA Redwood Shores Studio has changed the name of its studio to Visceral Games -- it boasts a sister Australian studio as well as unannounced games.

May 5, 2009

2 Min Read

Author: by Chris Remo, Staff

Dead Space creator EA Redwood Shores Studio has changed the name of its studio to Visceral Games, with boss Glen Schofield saying of the moniker, "It's in our blood." The development division of Electronic Arts responsible for the Dead Space franchise and the upcoming Dante's Inferno has chosen the new name to reflect its "intense, top quality games that push the boundaries of action entertainment," the group declared today. Today's announcement also revealed that Visceral has a a branch office in Melbourne, Australia; the Redwood Shores and Melbourne locations will work in tandem. In addition to the already-announced Dante's Inferno and Dead Space: Extraction, the studio is said to have two other unannounced games. Visceral falls under the EA Games label, and reports to senior VP Nick Earl, who is responsible for all EA Games studios located in California, such as EALA, Pandemic, and Maxis. Back in September 2008, Schofield revealed to Gamasutra that the development teams -- just part of a larger organization at that EA office which will keep the Electronic Arts brand -- wanted to rebrand as a name that reflected "creativity, originality, and high quality third-person action-adventure titles." As Schofield explains on the official website: "The name change represents who we are and what we believe games should be. Dead Space, Dead Space: Extraction, Dante's Inferno and other concepts in the pipeline illustrate where the studio's expertise and passion lay." The move reflects new branding plans currently being implemented elsewhere in the world for the major publisher -- with certain of its UK development studios being branded as EA Bright Light, and the BioWare and Pandemic brands staying intact after their acquisition. In that respect, Electronic Arts has gone in a different direction to competitors like Ubisoft and Take-Two, which in recent years have drifted more towards the standardized practice of dubbing studios with the publisher's name followed by a geographic qualifier.

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