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, 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. "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."