What the Hell is EA Doing with License?

I’m not a big gamer person, the silly mobile games like galaxy of heroes keep me plenty entertained, but I realize those kinds of games are mostly for killing time.

That said an open world type game set in the galaxy far, far, away would be amazing. Especially with a good focus on exploring and story. The possibilities would be endless. It really needs to happen. Even non gamer types like me I think would be into it.

 

Another vote here for Ubisoft. And like cawatrooper says, I don't really get all the hatred some people spit at them. Ok, they've lowered the visual spec of games prior to release etc. they've over-promoted standard genre-titles that just had a few gimmicks, but those games were still perfectly "fine" games. Watch Dogs wasn't genre-defining but I really enjoyed it, in fact aside from the extra gadgets, I actually preferred its style to the far higher-regarded sequel - I don't think there are any other GTA-styled games at present that are about as funny as a David Fincher movie; I like cruising the streets in the in-car view with Chromatics' Tick of the Clock (from Drive) and El-P's Sunrise Over Bklyn playing and murdering would-be-muggers down dark alleys in the pouring rain. The human trafficking and serial-killer side-plot also just gave the game a wonderfully grim atmosphere that its contemporaries replaced with dildos, bazookas and monster trucks in the name of wacky post-ironic humour. Plus stealthily taking out ganglands with a silenced pistol was SO satisfying, best part of the game.

Same goes for Ghost Recon Wildlands, another game that was just really quite enjoyable. Put the Predator soundtrack on whilst playing and it's even better... I was doing that long before they actually got the official licence and made that "the Jungle Moved" DLC featuring the actual Predator itself.

8 out 10s. Solid B+ experiences, nothing I regret owning, sunk hours into them. They won't be the games I'll reminisce about in years to come, but a totally "fine" game is better than NO games except a glorified coin-stealing arcade game, which is what we have at the moment.

Besides, Lucasarts' back-catalogue was built on games that were "fine". There were a few stellar ones (eg. TIE Fighter), lots of mediocre ones (eg. Republic Heroes) and some terrible ones (eg. Masters of Tears Kasi) but they made many a fine 7 or 8 out of 10 Star Wars game and I'd love to just have that variety again now; like Dark Forces 2, Republic Commando and the Force Unleashed. I don't need my mind blown, I just want to explore Star Wars at my own rate, in my own time, in a variety of ways. Look how many of us loved Shadows of the Empire, it actually justified N64 ownership for a large number of Star Wars fans, yet besides the Battle of Hoth, is largely a bland and repetitive shooter, but many of us adored that game just for the experience it allowed us... no matter how many times we just replayed the first level.

Give me Wildlands in the Star Wars universe with landspeeders instead of jeeps, T-14s instead of helicopters, bounty hunters instead of sicarios, the Empire instead of Unidad. Not to mention I LOVE that game's approach to multiplayer - just drop in and drop out of the same world you're in already, just trade in your AI team for real players at a moment's notice and anything you unlock you unlock in your single player mode too. Sick of playing with idiots? Disconnect and your AI team reappear.

It may not re-invent the wheel, but a Star Wars version of that would simply be great fun to play.

Just give us some disposable fun again, right now we have nothing unless you enjoy being shot by the unemployed.

 

I just don't like uplay.
Another gaming service to install.
Felt like jumping through hoops when my primary game provider is Steam.
===
It's also called paid to win. But how can unemployed pay? *confused*

 

Well I didn't specifically mean those who were 'out of work' and therefore poor, I was just being flippant and basically meant people who seemingly have loads of free time and can happily spend endless hours playing it (who also seem to have a much higher threshold for boredom and repetition than I clearly do too). As I've said before I don't have the time nor even have the desire to "get good", I just want to play a leisure product I bought with my money, in my own free time, at my rate, and have some early gratification whilst I do so.

 

EA owns BioWare. They could have them make us an awesome RPG. A spiritual successor to the KotOR games set in the new canon. Everyone would love that. They've done Mass Effect and Dragon Age games. Granted they've done them little justice. But, a Star Wars RPG is one thing where they'd get another chance.

 

Except an immersive and sprawling single-player RPG is pretty much the exact opposite of EA's "games as a service" mission statement now. The likelihood of us getting anything remotely like that is small.

Probably the best example of a "games as a service" model in a single-player game may well be Assassins Creed Origins. It's gotten continued support and updates since its launch in October, with even some new quests and other content added for free (in addition to paid DLC). So I guess it's possible, but I doubt it.

 

So to answer the titular question, apparently EA is hiring for an online engineering lead for "online features for a Star Wars open-world project." http://comicbook.com/gaming/2018/03/24/star-wars-open-world-game-ea/

That could mean a lot of things. New Star Wars MMO? Not likely as they'd probably just say MMO. Besides, that market is not exactly ideal. An open-world RPG like Skyrim/Fallout would be lovely. Grand Theft Auto Star Wars? Sounds legit. Star Wars: Breath of the Wild? Star Wars Shadow of War?

The online features...... could be like Creation Club, so take that as you will. Or online rankings. I honestly don't know. Whatever it is, you can probably bet that "Online Features" are ways for EA to make an extra buck off of the game after box sales. If they're worth the money, I have no problem. If they're optional I could care less. That said, I don't know that EA has earned a lot of trust with this sort of thing.

as for whatever form this "open world" takes, I'm of mixed emotions. I enjoy open world RPGs. However, Star Wars takes place on multiple worlds. Will EA shell out enough to make immersive "open worlds" on a sufficient number of planets? What about space? Is that part of the "Open World?"

 

Last time I bought an EA game was in 2007, it was The Sims 2. Since then, I've boycotted them since they shut down Maxis and ruined SimCity.
I don't miss playing EA games, because what you don't have or haven't played, you don't miss. It's easy.

 

And since then Bioware lost it.
They also just lost their lead writer who wrote Kotor 1 and Mass Effect 1+2. Drew Karpyshyn

 

EA is doing the minimal with Star Wars games and looking for more ways to profit through micro transactions. Even after the Star Wars battlefront 2 disaster it seems like they haven't learned from their mistakes. I really hope Ubisoft or Bethesda picks up the Star Wars license. I heard the EA is working on a open world star wars game with online features but I'm pretty sure that will be coated with micro transactions.

 

Anyone but EA should have the Star Wars license. The only reason EA stays in business is because they have a monopoly on sport games. They no longer are capable of making anything that isn't a cookie cutter. Imo Disney should just take Lucasfilm's old approach and let anyone take a crack at Star Wars.

 

Well they are trying to make money off of it and are doing a decent job. As much as some fans don’t like it they are keeping the license until 2023 and perhaps beyond. Hopefully not though.

 

I wonder that because Disney has been so focused on finishing the new trilogy and getting settled with the Star Wars universe that they've almost been letting EA make basically filler games that still have a Star Wars feel to them but that's about it. At the end of the day the battlefront games are just shooter games that don't need a story or campaign for people to enjoy them. When episode 9 is over I wouldn't be surprised to see Disney put some more pressure on EA (assuming they still have the license for the games) to make more story driven games that may tie in with the planned TV shows or new movie trilogies.

 

Hey Player XYZ, want to explore Tatooine? BUY THE DLC.

Agreed. I feel like people forget about this too often. I'm sure all the people working on these games know that the games are cash-grabs. Games have become gold-mine-products. Why bother making a game you can sell for 60 dollars if you can sell if for that and earn even a double of it through adding microtransactions? It's business. All we can hope for is that EA's public image weakens even more due to their poor SW games and then Disney will give the license to someone else.​

 

Got my wish baby!

 

According to unverified sources on Reddit, Battlefront 3 is happening. Not like this should surprise anyone - or that unverified sources on an anonymous internet site should be trusted at face value - but I still think it's good to note at least somewhere.


Yes Battlefront 3 is Happening. : GamingLeaksAndRumours (reddit.com)