Electronic Arts Signs Exclusive Star Wars Game Deal With Disney

[ToMegaTherion]

I just want a new battlefront game. If they deliver that, then I'll be pleased.

 

[Thamian]

Ok, initial reaction was: 'Oh God, Nooo!'. Upon deeper reflection, my response was still 'Oh God No!'.

My favorite bits from the OP.

The move confirms that Disney's decision to pull the plug on LucasArts did not signal a loss of interest in the videogame scene, but rather a desire to shift responsibility for the development of future Star Wars games into the hands of a company with some actual expertise in the field.

So, why are they working with EA again?

Neither would, say, a new TIE Fighter - just something to think about if anyone from EA happens to be reading.

Yes because in the eyes of the industry, space sims sell! As such EA will of course be champing at the bit to get started on that one! [/sarcasm]

*sigh*

Unfortuantely however, the games that come out of this deal will sell, albeit probably not as much as EA will inevitably expect them too, serving to further prolong EA's death spasms, or atleast further postpone their realisation that they need to change their ways rather drastically sooner or later if they ever want to start growing their business again any time soon.

Just when I starting to have some faith in humanity again...

 

[wetfart]

Well, the only thing that gives me the slightest glimmer of hope about this is that Disney has an image which they protect quite vigorously. I imagine that they will keep EA on a short leash to protect that image.

 

[Saviordd1]

Also Andy, don't ever use that picture again.

Am I the only one who didn't mind that edit?

Like the new movies or not, they are part of the canon, and it makes sense for Anakins ghost to...well look like anakin.

OT: Well, those are good devs, but how bad is EA gonna fuck those games up with micro transactions?

Except they were supposed to look how Luke saw them, or how they actually looked at the time they died (Why doesn't old ben look like young ben if this isn't the case?). Then again guessing by that avatar, little details aren't really all that important to you anyway.

OT: Yep, this falls in line pretty much with my expectations. Maybe Disney will wise up at some point.

Condescend much?

But please, tell me the part in the movies where it says "Luke, when you see the ghosts, you will see them how you imagine them" because otherwise its head canon or EU canon which is flimsy, at best.

Going by your logic my explanation of "He reverts back to his good self" is just as valid.

One's "moral standing" has nothing to do with how they look that's just asinine. Again, why does Aniken get a special set or rules when Yoda and Ben do not?

I don't know.

The same reason he changes his face and body completely if we go with the original version.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Am I the only one who thinks this might be good?

Really people


give it a chance before you start raging at this "unholy abomination"

 

[Atmos Duality]

Just when I starting to have some faith in humanity again...

What a strange stock in humanity you must keep if it's based so strongly on the actions of For-Profit companies.

 

[Black Reaper]

Thank god i'm not a hardcore Star Wars fan or anything,if i was,i would be pretty pissed

Stop! Stop! Star Wars is already dead!

For some reason,after reading you comment i felt the need to post this

 

[Jabberwock King]

One of these games better be Battlefront 3 or an equivalent, and it had better have space combat or I'm gonna punch someone.

 

[Doom972]

They might do something good with it, but the fact that the contract is EXCLUSIVE to EA is the problem. This means that nobody else will get a chance at a Star Wars game anytime soon.

I don't actually find that a bad thing. The direction that Star Wars games have taken recently to me does not reflect the movies I grew up with. Like the grossly overpowered, superhero warriors that Jedi are now represented as for example. Again what happened to "Guardians of Peace". A lot of the movies seem to portray them more as Agents of Destruction and Death. And part of that problem is the prequel movies which frankly ruined a lot of the mythos. So games now build off the new mythos, which is shit.

How is exclusivity over the franchise to one publisher a good thing? Why would you prefer that only EA would get to make Star Wars games?

I don't prefer that EA get exclusivity, I just don't have the knee jerk reaction that it's a bad thing like most people in this thread. Time will tell if it's a bad move or not.

As for why it CAN be a good thing? Because having development under one roof helps create consistency. Look at the development of the Avengers movie and all its predecessors to see what having everything under one roof can accomplish.

If given to a competent publisher, maybe. Knowing EA's history, I doubt that they'll care about consistency as much as Lucas Arts did. It's bad news for most gamers, but at least some EA fans will be satisfied.

 

[spartandude]

They might do something good with it, but the fact that the contract is EXCLUSIVE to EA is the problem. This means that nobody else will get a chance at a Star Wars game anytime soon.

I don't actually find that a bad thing. The direction that Star Wars games have taken recently to me does not reflect the movies I grew up with. Like the grossly overpowered, superhero warriors that Jedi are now represented as for example. Again what happened to "Guardians of Peace". A lot of the movies seem to portray them more as Agents of Destruction and Death. And part of that problem is the prequel movies which frankly ruined a lot of the mythos. So games now build off the new mythos, which is shit.

How is exclusivity over the franchise to one publisher a good thing? Why would you prefer that only EA would get to make Star Wars games?

I don't prefer that EA get exclusivity, I just don't have the knee jerk reaction that it's a bad thing like most people in this thread. Time will tell if it's a bad move or not.

As for why it CAN be a good thing? Because having development under one roof helps create consistency. Look at the development of the Avengers movie and all its predecessors to see what having everything under one roof can accomplish.

If given to a competent publisher, maybe. Knowing EA's history, I doubt that they'll care about consistency as much as Lucas Arts did. It's bad news for most gamers, but at least some EA fans will be satisfied.

Considering that the most popular space opera of this generation is Mass Effect, and given that Mass Effect is published by EA, I would think they'd have a better understanding than most publishers on how to deliver a good Star Wars product. They of course also have Deadspace, which is likewise another sci-fi based franchise.

Hell who else even does non-terrestrial sci fi? Halo? And what else? Lost Planet? Gears? Sorta . .


Further I don't understand the idea that it's good for EA fans, and bad for everyone else. I don't care if a company gets a franchise, the only thing I care about is the end product. If the end product is good, it doesn't matter who made it. Now you can speculate that a product will not be good because EA is doing it, but until that product actually comes out it is all speculation.

EA is the publisher not the developer. meaning they provide the funding and general direction for the games. it also really isnt the same as with your Avengers example.

the avengers and its prequals really follow one over arching story so they needed to have it in house for it all to work and for the movies to connect with eachother. however here that doesnt need to happen, yes maybe we will get several games with interconnecting stories but you dont need that to happen, KotOR and Battlefront and the Jedi Knight Series didnt connect at all and they were all good games.
also to use your avengers example The Amazing Spider man, wasnt connected to avengers, didnt need to and was by a different studio all together

at also means alot of talent is being cut off, Obsidian anybody? not to mention alot of people are disgruntled with Bioware and Visceral right now due to dead space and bioware's recent titles. and we then have the problem with alot of people being pissed at EA for their general direction in business and anti consumer tactics.

this isnt to say the games will suck, maybe they will be good but its definately not a good thing that EA has exclusive rights to this

 

[Sarge034]

Wow, glad to see no one is throwing about any knee-jerk reactions here. Yes, EA has pulled some stupid s*** in the past couple of years, but let's think about the studios that they're handing the franchise off to, and what games will be handled by them.

We have DICE, which is the obvious contender to develop Battlefront 3. As someone who absolutely loved the early BF games, and Battlefield 3, I'm not too concerned about them getting their hands on the Battlefront IP. We're not going to see a super gritty, color drained Battlefront game, as Battlefield is that way simply because it's stylized, and that's the direction they're taking it in. There's a lot to learn from the style and color pallets of Battlefront 1 & 2, and I'm sure that DICE will realize this when/if they begin development. Also, they would be the most likely of the three studios to develop sequels to Republic Commando.

Visceral could easily also pick up Republic Commando, but I really see them picking up StarWars 1313 where it left off. The seedy underbelly vibe of the game fits with the darker themes of the Dead Space franchise, and their experience with 3rd Person shooter mechanics is the strongest of the three teams. What new games would come out of Visceral, I'm not sure. There are a lot of space combat games that are desperately crying out for sequels, but whether they would be picked up by Visceral who, as a studio is still in its infancy and not locked into a specific genre of video games, or by DICE who will have to have some experience under their belt with space combat to make a true sequel to BF2, is uncertain.

Bioware is arguably the most confusing of the three in terms of where their projects will take them. We'll probably see some KoToR-esque sequels to past franchises out of them, alongside continued development of The Old Republic until they run that into the ground. I'm unsure what new IP's will come out of their studios, as all I've ever known them for is Action-RPG's, but they definitely have the talent (at least outside of the writing department), to develop various types of titles.

All in all, we're talking about three well received (for the most part) studios with a bit of a troubled past in some regard, but all more than willing to handle new and old IP's within the Star Wars universe.

TL;DR: Let's put those torches and pitchforks on layaway until we see some actual product.

But the problem is that...

Dice is known for colorless FPS 20XX, and I personally can't stand the sloppiness of their control scheme.

Visceral is known for short, action-"survival horror" games.

Bioware is known for the shitty ending of ME3, the entirety of DA2, and the flop that is SWTOR.

However, perhaps the biggest problem is that...

EA is known to require micro transactions included in the game, kill originality in games to make them "safer" to appeal to a larger audience, destroy/corrupt companies/franchises they get their hooks into, and be guilty of general duchebagery.

So as far as EA is concerned...

Spoiler

 

[captainordo]

Let me think,
Star Wars Battlefront style game running on the frostbite engine from Dice... Sounds fun I'll buy it
More Star Wars RPG games from Bioware... Hopefully it won't be an MMO, but overall, sounds good
And to be honest, this seems like an obvious choice due to the cooperation between Lucas Arts and EA on the Old Republic, and it might allow for more non-childish games to be made in the Star Wars Universe, which is always a plus.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

at also means alot of talent is being cut off, Obsidian anybody? not to mention alot of people are disgruntled with Bioware and Visceral right now due to dead space and bioware's recent titles. and we then have the problem with alot of people being pissed at EA for their general direction in business and anti consumer tactics.

Obsidian? What?
I don't know about anyone else but I'd much rather Obsidian was working on Fallout 4: Seattle or whatever than fricken star wars.

Or put another way. Your favourite studio that makes your favourite games? I'd much rather have them working on properties other than Star Wars. I'd rather see Elder Scrolls VI than some star wars game. I'd rather see Deus Ex HR2 and Thief reboot2 than star wars. etcetera. I don't want any of my favourite developers tied up on star wars. I want them continuing to make new IPs or building upon IPs that I already love.

Fuck Star Wars. The games almost never match the movies to me anyway. Except for ye old Tie Fighter and X-Wing, but no publisher, including EA, is gonna throw money at a space sim.

uh..did you not play kotor 2? obsidian showed how star wars stories have been shit up until that point, then took a shit on top of all of that and made some of the best characters i've ever witnessed in games.

not to mention, they had been very hopeful on pitching ideas to disney, they had been wanting to make another star wars game for a while, which more than likely means they had some amazing ideas brewing up after kotor 2, which i would pay a fucking arm and a leg for to play.

clearly you don't want star wars to be good, which by all means, give it to EA if that is what you want to happen, i can agree with that, sink that ship so other better ships can move in to take its place.

also, aren't bethesda doing the next fallout piece? unless i'm completely missing news here, i never knew obsidian had anything to do wit the fallout franchise post new vegas.

 

[spartandude]

at also means alot of talent is being cut off, Obsidian anybody? not to mention alot of people are disgruntled with Bioware and Visceral right now due to dead space and bioware's recent titles. and we then have the problem with alot of people being pissed at EA for their general direction in business and anti consumer tactics.

Obsidian? What?
I don't know about anyone else but I'd much rather Obsidian was working on Fallout 4: Seattle or whatever than fricken star wars.

Or put another way. Your favourite studio that makes your favourite games? I'd much rather have them working on properties other than Star Wars. I'd rather see Elder Scrolls VI than some star wars game. I'd rather see Deus Ex HR2 and Thief reboot2 than star wars. etcetera. I don't want any of my favourite developers tied up on star wars. I want them continuing to make new IPs or building upon IPs that I already love.

Fuck Star Wars. The games almost never match the movies to me anyway. Except for ye old Tie Fighter and X-Wing, but no publisher, including EA, is gonna throw money at a space sim.

uh..did you not play kotor 2? obsidian showed how star wars stories have been shit up until that point, then took a shit on top of all of that and made some of the best characters i've ever witnessed in games.

not to mention, they had been very hopeful on pitching ideas to disney, they had been wanting to make another star wars game for a while, which more than likely means they had some amazing ideas brewing up after kotor 2, which i would pay a fucking arm and a leg for to play.

clearly you don't want star wars to be good, which by all means, give it to EA if that is what you want to happen, i can agree with that, sink that ship so other better ships can move in to take its place.

also, aren't bethesda doing the next fallout piece? unless i'm completely missing news here, i never knew obsidian had anything to do wit the fallout franchise post new vegas.

In an ideal world Obsidian would declare TOR non cannon and then make KotOR III themselves.
then again in an ideal world LucasArts would have made a new Jedi Knight game rather than Force Unleashed and EA wouldnt hold exclusive rights to StarWars games

 

[PrototypeC]

From all these comments I'm reading, everyone's more worried about EA than Disney? They think of Disney as the good guy, and this is their first dangerous, short-sighted decision? Huh. There's nothing wrong with that; I've just always thought of Disney as the supervillain. This is as much like a supervillain team-up as anything else. Disney holds a tight, tight leash on their properties, so I don't think any of EA's usual tomfoolery will ensue. Every mind-blowingly stupid or malicious decision will likely be on Disney's part, not Electronic Arts's.

Besides, what's the worst that could happen? It couldn't possibly be any more of a horrible, offensive mess than The Force Unleashed II, or I for that matter. Star Wars is at rock bottom, right? The only way to go is up.