EA Redwood Shores becomes Visceral Games

Electronic Arts has announced that it has rebranded its Redwood Shores studio, giving it a new name - Visceral Games - and a striking new skull-based logo.

The rebrand for the studio behind Dead Space and Dante's Inferno is designed to act as a "mission statement" for the internal team, as well as reflecting the kinds of mature content games it now produces.

"I wanted something that would almost be a mission statement in a name, that would give us more focus, if you will," Glen Schofield, VP and general manager of Visceral told GamesIndustry.biz. "The types of games that we're making these days are pretty intense, action-packed, in many cases mature - although they don't have to be.

"We're moving in a direction that's less Mickey Mouse and more realistic, intense, fighting-kind of games. Visceral works really well for Dead Space, Dante's and Extraction."

The studio, previously nicknamed EARS as a result of its initials, is one of the oldest studios in the industry, dating back over twenty years, but has previously suffered from a lack of identity - often getting confused with EA's corporate headquarters.

But Schofield is confident the new brand identity will help people to understand the studio's work much more - something which will benefit EA as a whole.

"Let's say EA might have a license, or an idea - they'll look at it and say it's perfect for Visceral Games," he said. "What we want is to define the genre that we make in the name."

Schofield declined to reveal some of the other name options that had been considered before settling on Visceral.

The studio is currently working on Dead Space: Extraction and Dante's Inferno - both mature-content titles - as well as two unannounced games.