Electronic Arts and Star Wars: A Marriage on the Rocks

Jason Fanelli,

July 1, 2018 9:00 PM

With the latest news that Amy Hennig left EA back in February, we just have to ask: what is going on with Electronic Arts and Star Wars?

These troopers have quite a storm to weather...

I try to give game publishers the benefit of the doubt. Big time publishers like Ubisoft and Bethesda deal with more behind-the-scenes crap than the consumer or even the media person like me will ever understand. Gaming is a tough, tough business that requires a lot of time, effort, and decision making.

That being said, what in the Force is happening over at Electronic Arts?

The Star Wars franchise was considered a massive coup for the company when they scored the exclusive publishing rights for ten years back in 2013. At the time this was an exciting joining of two mammoth entities, one of the top publishers in video games and perhaps the most popular sci-fi franchise in existence. This was a match made in Heaven...but it’s quickly descended into Hell.

In the five years since the EA/LucasArts partnership was founded, EA has released a grand total...of two games. TWO. The first was Star Wars Battlefront, which was...fine, despite the lack of a single-player than the game desperately needed. The multiplayer matches were absolutely fun, and the game had the potential to be a solid jumping off point for EA and Star Wars to make beautiful music together…

...but then the sequel came out.

Granted EA listened to the people -- even John Boyega -- and created a single player campaign that Disney and LucasArts agreed to call canon. This was an actual chapter in Star Wars lore, one linking the original trilogy to the newest one. Janina Gavankar led the story in her role as Iden Versio and she killed it. The story, which certainly having its faults, was fun and entertaining and fitting of the Star Wars lore in this writer’s opinion. EA delivered, so it stood to reason that the company would improve on the multiplayer of the first game and deliver there as well, right?

I want to insert a sound effect here, but I can’t decide if it should be a laugh track or the sound of a hand slapping a forehead.

This screen that angered a million gamers.

Loot. Boxes. Two words when combined form a word I bet EA CEO Andrew Wilson never wants to hear again. The microtransaction system in Star Wars Battlefront II completely ruined the experience, and more importantly all of the goodwill that the first game created, in one fell swoop. Players came into the game excited to play as their favorite Star Wars characters in the multiplayer, as the marketing leading up to launch teased names like Darth Maul and Rey from The Force Awakens. Reasonable players expected some sort of unlocking function, maybe even a small microtransaction or two, but what they got was a travesty.

Game mechanics not accurately explained. A system that seemingly forced lootboxes on players in order to attain the desired progression. The promise of not needing to buy lootboxes to unlock everything, but a non-paid full unlocking needing more than 4,500 hours to achieve. Fans felt like they’d been slapped in the face, and they responded in kind via Twitter and Reddit and the new hotness, Change.Org petitions.

So let’s recap: partnership announced in 2013, two games launched since then, one a multiplayer-only game and the other ripped to shreds in the court of public opinion thanks to shady lootbox-related dealings. That’s...not great.

Now I understand that games take a long time to develop, and that the true depth of this alliance could be on its way...but is it? After EA shuttered Visceral Games and torched whatever they were making, we get news that Amy Hennig -- who was specifically brought on to head a single-player Star Wars game, remember -- left back in February (though it was reported she’d just left this week). While she says the multiplayer-focused from EA Vancouver is still on schedule, we don’t anything more about it then “it’s a thing” and “it’s multiplayer focused.” Hooray?

OH, I almost forgot, at EA Play this year Vince Zampella of Respawn finally gave us info on his studio’s new game...its name, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. NEAT.

Two games released, two games on the way (that we know of) and one really, really bad scandal involving allegedly predatory microtransactions that were so bad world governments are getting involved. Fans aren’t happy, and ya know who else probably isn’t happy? Disney and LucasArts, who might be shopping the Star Wars name around to other publishers who would love to steal some of EA’s thunder. The Mouse is not one to take being ticked off lightly, and frankly I’m surprised this licensing deal hasn’t already been terminated.

Honestly, that’s the only beacon of hope in this whole debacle: that Disney hasn’t already pulled out of the deal. That tells me, in some weird super “glass half full” scenario, that they’ve seen what EA Vancouver and Respawn are working on and they like what they see. That may sound silly considering one of those two studios was responsible for Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects during another of EA’s misguided licensing deals, but who knows? Jedi Fallen Order could come out and right some of these wrongs. The EA Vancouver game could be the Star Wars equivalent of Destiny and make us all swoon. Forgive me for not holding my breath on that, but it is possible.

Like I said at the top, I understand what goes into making a game, and I’ll admit that what I know still probably doesn’t scratch the surface. The pressure of making Star Wars games must be immense and come from all sides, with a rabid fanbase and The Mouse breathing down either side of EA’s neck. However, halfway through this partnership EA has not handled that pressure well, and their time may be running short. Here’s to hoping that they can right this ship and deliver, because gaming as a whole is better when EA is on top of its game...whether gamers want to admit that or not.



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