Electronic Arts has handled the Star Wars license terribly. They’ve screwed things up in ways that are embarrassing to watch.
Having only squirted out two Star Wars Battlefront games and made a mess of both, EA deserves to lose its exclusive hold over Star Wars games. EA also just deserves to lose in general.
Disney seriously needs to outsource the Star Wars name to various publishers and developers that excel in their own field.
A fighting game from Bandai Namco and the team behind SoulCalibur or even Arc System Works, a turned-based RPG from the likes of Square-Enix or Mistwalker, a hack’n’slash from Capcom, PlatinumGames, Team Ninja or even Omega Force, even your typical open world games that Ubisoft (still shitty but not as shitty as EA and Activision Blizzard) loves to make.
So many possibilities but Disney gave exclusive rights to make Star Wars games to EA; a company already infamous for the last 20 years for fucking up beloved franchises, churning out yearly mediocre sports and winning Worst Company of America awards twice-in-a-row.
Yeah it’s pretty sad EA couldn’t manage a good game. Heck I would of even accept a dozen mediocre games. I grew up with STar Wars racing games, Star Wars fighting games, space combat games, side scrolling beat em up action games and more. Two First person shooters in about 6 years is sad not just in quality but also quantity.
“small scale star wars game” = mobile cardgame
I’d sooner trust Bethesda with the Star Wars licence, and that’s saying something.
Compare this output from the Star Wars license to the recent output of Warhammer games. It’s night and day. Games Workshop opened up the Warhammer IP and we’ve had smash hit after smash hit bringing in the exposure and money. The games that don’t work out end up being mobile cashgrabs that no-one cares about while Total War and Vermintide are market leaders in their genres and are arguably generating more interest than the tabletop game and theres a dozen other smaller success stories for the IP.
Open up the Star Wars license and every damn developer would have amazing ideas for it and Disney could have the same kinds of successes. Instead its been wasted on low-effort disappointments. Its so depressing to imagine the possibilities of what we could be seeing from this universe.
Say what you will about Activision – and believe me, I have – but at least noted Captain Planet villain Bobby Kotick runs a tight ship and seems to be smart about what he’s doing even if it is completely evil.
EA’s incompetence seems like they’re trying to one up Konami. They’ve fucked up what is essentially a license to print money. EA could have slapped Obi-Wan Kenobi’s face on Atari’s Maze Craze, called it Escape from the Death Star, and it would have still made money.
Let’s see what game ideas I could think of in the time of this video:
-Force Unleashed 3: Set it before/during the new movies Starkiller(‘s clone) is now an old man forced(heh) out of retirement for one reason or another.
-Some strategy game: Think about it this is Star _Wars_ after all. you could make it take place during literally any point in the timeline – clone wars, rebels vs empire, first order’s rise to power – and still make sense. Maybe have it be a mobile game if they’re so concerned about making it on the cheap.
-X-Wing/Tie fighter: A nice return to the space fighter genre that is notably missing in the _AAA_ space. You could even make themed peripherals to tie into them.
-Jar-Jar Binks sings Blues: People would buy it as a joke. You never know, something weird and goofy may be just the thing they need. And wasn’t the rhythm game the part people like about the Kinect game?
Any other Ideas?
Disney is overprotective of their IPs to the point, that a copyright law is nicknamed after the Mouse! They hold tight reigns and cancel anything that doesn’t show overwhelming potential of success.
I don’t think at any point in EAs endevours with the Star Wars IP hasn’t been signed off or cancelled without Disney executive input, a rubber stamp and a free trip to LucasFilm HQ. Disney signed off on everything in BF2… EVERYTHING!!! Assets, story, lore, character actors and loot boxes.
Disney executives saw mobile games makes high revenue for little production value and EA said they could deliver on that idea, and the games have either failed to meet consumer standards, cause backlash or just get cancelled.
The Star Wars PC & Console Games licences needs a Disney executive who understands that market… and they don’t, thats why they are in this situation, they gave EA an exclusive deal and hand-in-hand kiboshed any ounce of creativity and great design they could for revenue exploitation and production cost cutting.
* * * * JIM PLEASE READ * * *
Mr Sterling (Thank God for You), I have no idea if you see this, but I’ve given this a lot of thought and I’d be interested to see what you make of this:
After seeing what goes on in and around the gaming industry I’ve come to the conclusion that there simply isn’t a single “gaming industry”.
I think of it as *three* parallel industries that are completely separate from each other and only share one thing in common: They all include video games in one way or another.
*1. Digital Drug Deals
*
Typically mobile games and third-rate PC/console games, these games are produced with low budgets and are given either no marketing at all, or lots of cheap widespread marketing like banners and brief youtube ads.
These kinds of games try to hook players in by pushing the player into timesink cycles that are surpassed by purchasing premium currency (gems, diamonds, etc).
The gameplay of these games is almost always just rinse-and-repeat type stuff, eg: Dungeon Keeper Mobile, Clash of Clans, etc designed specifically to push players in cyclical addictive patterns.
The goal of these games is to try to create a small-but-consistent long-running cash cow. While they’re usually “free to play”, they’re loaded with constant prompts to spend real money to “boost” their progress within the eastablished addictive cycles. This in my opinion is as bad or worse than loot boxes.
*2. Smash-n-Grab Interactive Trailers
*
These are your big-budget AAA titles. They’re frantically focused on high-end graphics and heavy, expensive marketing. The business is actually focused around the marketing, NOT the games themselves. You can think of the games as extensions of the trailers and hype. Get an established IP (or create one), market the ever-loving heck out of it, then shove a game out to get people to pay $60 at the door and another $60+ in DLC and microtransactions.
These games are not intended to last longer than a year, because the development production cycle is continuous; Players are always ready to shell out another $60 to play the next fancy-looking interactive trailer the following year.
The gameplay of these is always dumbed down and built around the graphical quality to “wow” the player while the novelty is still fresh. Gameplay and functionality are distant secondary concerns and then only if their absence would harm revenue.
Clearly these games are made to bring in revenue and satisfy shareholders by fuelling an endless cycle of large-scale output. It’s as if they’re trying to mirror the movie industry, where mediocre movies are pushed out like a production line; They cost tens of millions to make, but rake in hundreds of millions in revenue. Profit, profit, profit!
*3. Actual Good Games
*
These are your real, true classic memorable games. Just think of the truly innovative and trend-setting games that we’ve seen over the years… Yes, those.
These generally make the least money but they garner a truly dedicated audience that sticks with the game and its sequels. This dedicated fanbase are actually the best audience, because you know that if your sequel is on par with the previous titles in the IP, that fanbase will buy it.
It’s the most honest type of game development because the players love the game for its actual content and gameplay at its core, not just jumping on a novelty bandwagon or falling into an addictive cycle of microtransactions.
While developers of these games are working a job, they care about what they produce and get something out of seeing people enjoy their creative work, eg: Lord British of the classic Ultima series, John Romero of classic Doom fame, etc.
So when critiquing the “gaming industry” it would make sense to clearly designate each title into one of those three categories.
*_”Is this game a packet of cigarettes, a bag of cocaine, or a fine wine?”_* …that is the question.
Did I already thank God for you? Well thanks again!
We can all add Star Wars Games to the list of killed franchises. Sure, its not a game studio… but it still counts.
They didn’t kill it.. but its pretty much the same thing. They keep failing and only made “2” (well its more like 1 game made twice) RiP whatever EA touches. ???
I’m stealing Dingo Manboger and you CAN’T STOP ME
R.I.P Bullfrog, Origin, Westwood, Pandemic, Maxis, Visceral
*Star Wars: Battlefront 76 incoming*
Yes, and Disney should stop giving an *exclusive* Star Wars license to any single entity again. Keep it diverse and flexible, on a case-by-case basis to ensure things don’t get out of hand.
While we’re at it, can we also give the sports licences to other companies too? I feel the entirety of sporting games has stagnated, no thanks to them.
BF2 the good old days,
when TB was still arround to rip EA a new one
And early call out their BS…
God i miss him…
Thx god for jim to be still arround.