Recently, the Australian videogame industry has suffered some crippling blows. From THQ closing two Sydney-based studios to the controversial end of Team Bondi, it seemed the situation can only go from bad to worse. Well, today it became worse. Visceral Games, the team behind the Dead Space franchise had a small studio in Melbourne. As confirmed today by the International Game Developer's Association, that studio no longer exists.
A total of 21 developers are now out of a job. The studio has spent the last three years working on a "AAA title" for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. According to a source close to the studio, the new Vice President for EA's Games Label was behind the closure, apparently unhappy with the potential of the project from a financial standpoint. Whether the game itself will ever see the light of day is something we will have to wait to see. But for now, an already damaged local industry is being battered, and with all three studio closures happening within a matter of months, it's unclear how much more the Australian videogame industry can take.
EA’s Visceral Studios In Melbourne Rumoured To Close On Monday [Kotaku Australia]
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Contest:
9:40 AM on 09.19.2011 | 
it was therefore doomed to fail and suck, the studio had to go
Everything must be a shooter.
Wait so they were working on something original and innovative.
I agree with Cryotek, though. Why anyone would take a job in this fickle-ass sweatshop industry is beyond me.
I'm sure plenty of people, including myself, go into this industry because they have a passion for creating games and anything else involved like adv. programming and engineering.
Now as for myself I want to get into this industry for my own purposes to create the games I want create myself, and being with a large community of game developers here in Austin would makes things less of a hassle. And getting the people interested in the games I have on my own production time will be difficult as I do lack skills in some fields that games rely on.
That being said this industry, kinda like what you said, is a hit-or-miss, and regardless if you create good or bad games, you're going to be jumping around from studio constantly weather its a lay-off, or just simple studio jump.
As for this particular studio, I think it's best to say that maybe the Australian area is probably one of the few or many worst places for the game industry at the moment with global economy.
Economics, they're a bitch.
I believe this country has the potential to develop a decent amount of AAA games, but sadly I don't see it happening anytime soon.
too bad about the closure :\
i want to see more game by Visceral Studios :P