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EA might not be making Star Wars games much longer


kidson2004

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Disney and Lucasfilm are considering pulling the Star Wars license from EA and giving it to another publisher to develop future titles, according to a recent report.

Despite currently having an exclusivity agreement with EA, Disney and Lucasfilm have apparently reached out to Ubisoft and Activision in taking over its Star Wars license.

EA and Disney penned their exclusivity agreement back in 2013 and shortly thereafter opened DICE LA, but it sounds like the Star Wars games that have since launched haven’t exactly lived up to Disney’s expectations.

 

Part of problem might be the lack of Star Wars titles that EA has developed since the agreement. Two Star Wars Battlefront games and the mobile RPG Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes are basically all EA has to show for itself thus far. The biennial releases of Star Wars games doesn’t seem to jive with Disney’s annual film releases.

As far as the future is concerned, EA continues to support Star Wars Battlefront II with updates (even with conspicuously long periods of radio silence), but the only other Star Wars games in the works is Titanfall developer Respawn’s Star Wars title, which “most likely will drop” in the 2020 fiscal year, according to EA CFO Blake Jorgensen, meaning the next big-budget Star Wars game might not launch until sometime between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.

 

This past year was particularly rough for EA’s Star Wars output. Following unprecedented backlash against its intended loot box system, Star Wars Battlefront II underperformed, selling 5 million less copies than its predecessor over the same period. In fact, Battlefront II‘s microtransactions were so controversial that Disney CEO Bob Iger supposedly called EA himself and instructed the publisher to pull the loot box system.

 

It also sounds like EA’s canning of Visceral Games and its cancellation of that studio’s single-player Star Wars title might have actually drawn more attention from Disney than previously thought. The nixing of Visceral Games’ Star Wars title left huge empty space, not only in our hearts but also on the calendar of Star Wars game releases, and reports say that Disney isn’t happy about 2018’s impending dry spell.

 

Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt. The rumors, while believable, rely on unnamed sources, and I’m not sure that Disney would find what it’s looking for in either Ubisoft or Activision.

EA basically axed the Visceral Star Wars title because its model didn’t leave much room for a “games-as-service” revenue stream (and also because production on that title was apparently a mess). Ubisoft and Activision have both recently doubled-down on their dedication to creating more “games-as-service”–type projects, especially with the growing financial gains to be made from microtransactions. In other words, Disney might just run into the same problems at either Ubisoft or Activision that it’s experiencing with EA.

It’s also possible that Disney is floating these rumors to put the fear of The Mouse in EA to make them work harder for its love, but that won’t make a Star Wars game appear out of thin air for 2018.

 

The simple fact is that there are more Star Wars movies coming out than ever and less Star Wars games launching, and this could mean bad news for EA’s Star Wars properties in 2018. Disney and Lucasfilm did sign a contract with EA, but with a license as big as Star Wars, there are almost certainly clauses that would allow Disney to renegotiate or pull out altogether. We’re coming up on the five-year anniversary of that contract, too—a nice round number for contract negotiation periods.

 

In the end, what really concerns me is that Respawn won’t be left in the lurch and victimized by EA’s well-known history for shutting down studios.

 

You can read the article here:

 

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/ea-might-not-be-making-star-wars-games-for-much-longer/

 

What do you think? Bout time if you ask me personally. 

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9 minutes ago, kidson2004 said:

 

You can read the article here:

 

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/ea-might-not-be-making-star-wars-games-for-much-longer/

 

What do you think? Bout time if you ask me personally. 

Ya I read about this not long ago. 

 

Really EA is nothing, Disney is a behemoth of massive proportions.

They could buy EA and not even feel a feather drop. 

I don't think they'll renegotiate. 

I think EA is out already behind the scenes. 

 

Don't know who they would choose, but maybe Square-Enix as they already have had contact with them in the industry, though Square may not have the manpower and time no matter how much money is thrown around.

Disney's in a pickle in that regard. 

 

I would like to see them open their own studio(pure), and see how they do. But they're probably pressed for time now. 

 

Either way give me a true rogue squadron! None of this press a button to do the work for you crap. 

And after I bought the first battlefront, I passed on the second. Good thing too. 

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That would be nice. I'm a little confused why there was ever an exclusivity agreement with EA in the first place. A franchise like Star Wars would benefit greatly from being used by a multitude of developers, not be confined to a single one. Imagine an action game focused on lightsaber combat being made by Platinum, then an RPG being made by Square, and even a story heavy game made by Tell Tale. The Star Wars franchise is way too expansive to be limited like it has been.

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"Despite currently having an exclusivity agreement with EA, Disney and Lucasfilm have apparently reached out to Ubisoft and Activision in taking over its Star Wars license."

 

Didn't Activision file a patent to put players against skilled players to make them buy microtransactions or something like that?

 

I wonder, why can't Disney start up there own gaming making company?

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Disney may very well just team up with Square. We all know Kingdom Hearts were awesome. SE will be able to push out quality Star Wars. We might even get a Noctis in the SW universe!!....

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A Telltale Star wars game would make sense since there was a Guardians of the Galaxy game. Square Enix would make sense too since Disney has experience working with them since KH1. 

 

I don't think Disney would make their own company, but if they can solicit a few great minds in the industry, they could make it work. Don't see it happening, because I think they would have done it by now if they were going to, but who knows?

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I would be on board with them giving it to Activision since they still have Raven Software which could possibly mean getting another game like Jedi Outcast/Academy but considering Activision is also lootbox happy I feel it would be jumping right back where we started.

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22 minutes ago, Potent_Delusions said:

Everyone should stop celebrating, Activision would be even worse than EA, trust me. As a COD multiplayer enthusiast...I can tell you this for a fact.

Exactly! That and Ubisoft is focusing on providing games as a service. I.e release a game and keep pumping dlcs for years to come

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/kotaku.com/why-ubisoft-is-obsessed-with-games-as-a-service-1822938255/amp

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4 hours ago, A12 said:

Uh they are not loosing any Star Wars licenses.

This was confirmed at EA's most recent Investor conference.

Ya EA is definitely going to tell their investors something bad without a good spin on it, especially if it's a rumor that's probably true. 

 

Like I said EA is a speck of dust compared to Disney, Disney will do what Disney wants to do. 

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  • 3 months later...

I fell for the EA/Star Wars trick for Battlefront.  Paid the full 60 bucks and played it for a couple hours, never turned it on again.  I didn't fall for that the second time.  Battlefront II can suck all it wants I probably wouldn't play it if it was free.  

 

On a positive note, I loved the PS2 Battlefront games and I really enjoyed The Force Unleashed games.  The blame lies on EA for the newer bad ones, right square where it should.  

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