In the time since Disney acquired the Star Wars franchise, the fanbase has been split with such a chasm that makes most other fandom drama look like hairline fractures.
Some people (like me) love the new life the recent films have given to the saga, others have probably fair criticism against it, and a lot of toxic whiny fanboys are just pissing their nappies because there’s too much diversity and progressiveness in their space epic about fighting space Nazism.
But whichever side you’re on, Star Wars fans are unanimously aggrieved by the direction the Star Wars video game property has taken since EA obtained exclusive licencing rights.
The move in 2012 to shut down LucasArts’ video game development meant the death of several projects, including the mythical Star Wars 1313. The first game to come out after the acquisition was the 2015 Star Wars Battlefront reboot, much maligned by fans, including John Boyega himself.
EA has only created relatively few games in its 7 years as sole developer.
In comparison to the large variety of video games published by LucasArts when the license was shared to various developers (including in-house), EA has only created relatively few games in its 7 years as sole developer. In development was a open-world game, code-named Orca, which included in its development team Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig.
According to a source, the game would have had an Uncharted-scale level of story focus, whilst also being an open-world adventure allowing players to act in the role of a bounty hunter – a game which sounds like a spiritual successor (if a cancelled game can have a successor) to the aforementioned Star Wars 1313. It is perhaps this similarity that sparked the interest of Star Wars fans who had otherwise all but given up on EA’s ability to adequately handle the Star Wars IP.
But that little faith has been recently trampled on as EA have yet again displayed lack of understanding of their target audience and have cancelled Orca in favour of bringing forward other titles, focusing on multiplayer, mobile and online games rather than story-driven titles. Much like with Battlefront III and 1313, Orca will be relegated to a ‘what could have been status’ of a great Star Wars game shafted the developer.
It shows how dissatisfied the Star Wars gaming community is that there was immediate backlash to the game being cancelled, despite very little actually being revealed about it.
Whichever side you’re on, Star Wars fans are unanimously aggrieved by the direction the Star Wars video game property has taken since EA obtained exclusive licencing rights.
Star Wars gamers want to go back to the days where playing a Star Wars game was fun, innovative and most of all, made you feel like you were part of the story. And until EA understands this, or gives way to someone who does, it doesn’t look like we’ll be returning to the Golden Era of Star Wars video games anytime soon.