Battlefield Hardline, Dead Space General Manager Leaves Visceral After 15 Years

The General Manager and Vice President of Visceral Games, Steve Papoutsis, has parted ways with his studio after 15 years of employment, where he produced multiple Dead Space and Battlefield games.

Electronic Arts representatives have confirmed to Kotaku that Visceral Games VP and General Manager Steve Papoutsis is no longer with the company. Papoutsis worked with EA for almost 15 years, having revolutionized the survival horror genre with what he and his team did with the first Dead Space game. Unfortunately, there is no word as to why Papoutsis left, but it could be that the policies and deadlines that big name publishing companies, such as EA, usually impose on their studios finally got to him. It also could be due to possible lackluster sales numbers for Battlefield Hardline. Papoutsis is being replaced as Visceral's General Manager by Scott Probst, who is the son of EA Chairman Larry Probst and a producer at EA. In late 2009 and early 2010, many members of Visceral Games left the company to head over to Sledgehammer Games, which was working on a third-person, Vietnam-centered Call of Duty game (it was eventually canned for the sake of working on Ghosts and Advanced Warfare).

“We are thankful for Steve’s many contributions to EA and wish him the best," said the EA rep.

Papoutsis and his team were met with much praise in regards to the first two Dead Space games. Unfortunately, the third Dead Space was more action-oriented (introducing cover mechanics, more guns and more bullets), so that non-survival horror fans would take an interest in the series, which ultimately backfired due to the negative responses Dead Space 3 had with longtime fans of the series.

After releasing Battlefield Hardline just last month, Visceral Games is currently working on a mystery Star Wars game, which is being directed by Amy Hennig (the Creative Lead of the Uncharted trilogy). This new Star Wars game is expected to be revealed at the Star Wars Celebration this month or at E3 2015 later this summer. It is likely that this new Star Wars game could tie-in with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which launches on Dec. 18.