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EA is really struggling with their Star Wars license. If they put out just 1 good Star Wars game they'd see insane revenue. I haven't purchased an AAA title in

EA is really struggling with their Star Wars license. If they put out just 1 good Star Wars game they'd see insane revenue. I haven't purchased an AAA title in years and I would buy an okayish Jedi Knight IV.

grawprog 8y ago
Just think of how many different colours of lightsabres would be available through microtransactions. I would have said grey area gambling but you did specify okayish.
CydeWeys 8y ago
My dream is a modern Star Wars/TIE Fighter space shooter. Those were some of my very favorite games back in the late Win 3.1/early Win 95 era. I suspect it wouldn't have the same widespread appeal as an adventure/shooter/RPG like Jedi Knight, but it could be also be made at a pretty low cost, and it's not like the license restricts how many Star Wars games they can release. May as well go make a space shooter with a smaller team while they still have the license. Why does everything have to get the AAA treatment these days?
- falcolas 8y ago
  > Why does everything have to get the AAA treatment these days? The same thing that causes companies who are making record profits to be considered underperforming: growth at any cost. For EA and Activision/Blizzard (and their big name kin), if a game doesn't have the potential to make significantly more money than its peers, it's not worth making.
  - DerDangDerDang 8y ago
    Which has the knock on effect that championing a smaller project through internal green light is not as good for your career as waiting for the chance to lead a AAA title- I’m guessing
- verisimilidude 8y ago
  My dream is a modern Star Wars TIE Fighter space shooter...in VR. But I doubt the VR market is big enough to justify the investment that’s demanded by the Star Wars license. Like you say, AAA is sometimes a straight-jacket.
  - llukas 8y ago
    VR or non VR, refresh of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter with modern graphics would be epic...
  - dleslie 8y ago
    Elite Dangerous is as close as you'll get.
- strictnein 8y ago
  Some of the space battles in Battlefront 2 approached the fun I had playing X-Wing and TIE Fighter, back in the day. It's a little too fast paced and frenetic, but dodging between large girders on a huge space station while being chased by an enemy A-Wing is still quite fun. Or looping around the back of a Star Destroyer in an X-Wing. If they took that engine (which already featured decent enough AI controlled bots), slowed things down a bit, and wrapped a campaign around it all, I'd be sold.
- Thaxll 8y ago
  Because Disney will never give its licences to a company that ships less than 5m copies per SW game. That's one of the reason EA is one of the only publisher big enough to have the rights.
qmarchi 8y ago
To follow up on it, EA isn't even terrible on having the studios make relatively great games. A quick look at the skyrocketing success of Apex: Legends, announced _at the EA call_ on Feb 5th, has already surpassed 25M accounts and 2M concurrent users. They need to focus on what's made them most of their money over the past years, game sales for series games (FIFA, NASCAR, etc.) and great first-party titles that aren't on a rushed release schedule. Apex is a great example of the latter. Nobody knew it was coming, and it ended up being a polished game that will probably make EA a significant portion of money. Disclaimer:? I play Apex, and legitimately enjoy it. I also play Anthem, which although not the _best_ game in the world, is still of pretty high production value from what I've played.
- debacle 8y ago
  Apex is a great game. Throw in some force powers, lightsabres, and holocrons, and you suddenly have a great Star Wars game.
- pnw_hazor 8y ago
  Though from what I read, EA allegedly had zero input into Apex. That might be why it is becoming popular. I just tried Apex a few days ago, it was pretty fun.
  - grogenaut 8y ago
    How much input did they have into Titanfall 1&2? Those weren't exactly gangbusters.
    - pnw_hazor 8y ago
      EA gets a lot of the blame for TF 2's failure. "Of course, Titanfall 2’s disappointing sales aren’t as much to do with the nature of its content as much as it is about timing, and that’s entirely on EA. Sandwiching Titanfall 2 between Battlefield 1 and COD: Infinite Warfare hasn’t helped the game at all. Seriously, what were they thinking? Apparently, even the game’s producers were left in the dark behind the decision-making process." https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/poor-titanfall-2-sales-ea/ https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/poor-titanfall-2-sales-e... https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/01/31/eas-anthem-delay-could-save-bioware-from-the-sad-fate-of-titanfall-2/#73d674f97a5e https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/01/31/eas-anthem-...
falcolas 8y ago
Disney's perfectly happy with EA's treatment of the Star Wars license, so what could be wrong? /s EDIT: Downvote away, but that is Disney's public stance on the topic.

grawprog 8y ago

Just think of how many different colours of lightsabres would be available through microtransactions. I would have said grey area gambling but you did specify okayish.

CydeWeys 8y ago

My dream is a modern Star Wars/TIE Fighter space shooter. Those were some of my very favorite games back in the late Win 3.1/early Win 95 era. I suspect it wouldn't have the same widespread appeal as an adventure/shooter/RPG like Jedi Knight, but it could be also be made at a pretty low cost, and it's not like the license restricts how many Star Wars games they can release. May as well go make a space shooter with a smaller team while they still have the license. Why does everything have to get the AAA treatment these days?

falcolas 8y ago
> Why does everything have to get the AAA treatment these days? The same thing that causes companies who are making record profits to be considered underperforming: growth at any cost. For EA and Activision/Blizzard (and their big name kin), if a game doesn't have the potential to make significantly more money than its peers, it's not worth making.
- DerDangDerDang 8y ago
  Which has the knock on effect that championing a smaller project through internal green light is not as good for your career as waiting for the chance to lead a AAA title- I’m guessing
verisimilidude 8y ago
My dream is a modern Star Wars TIE Fighter space shooter...in VR. But I doubt the VR market is big enough to justify the investment that’s demanded by the Star Wars license. Like you say, AAA is sometimes a straight-jacket.
- llukas 8y ago
  VR or non VR, refresh of X-Wing vs TIE Fighter with modern graphics would be epic...
- dleslie 8y ago
  Elite Dangerous is as close as you'll get.
strictnein 8y ago
Some of the space battles in Battlefront 2 approached the fun I had playing X-Wing and TIE Fighter, back in the day. It's a little too fast paced and frenetic, but dodging between large girders on a huge space station while being chased by an enemy A-Wing is still quite fun. Or looping around the back of a Star Destroyer in an X-Wing. If they took that engine (which already featured decent enough AI controlled bots), slowed things down a bit, and wrapped a campaign around it all, I'd be sold.
Thaxll 8y ago
Because Disney will never give its licences to a company that ships less than 5m copies per SW game. That's one of the reason EA is one of the only publisher big enough to have the rights.

qmarchi 8y ago

To follow up on it, EA isn't even terrible on having the studios make relatively great games. A quick look at the skyrocketing success of Apex: Legends, announced _at the EA call_ on Feb 5th, has already surpassed 25M accounts and 2M concurrent users. They need to focus on what's made them most of their money over the past years, game sales for series games (FIFA, NASCAR, etc.) and great first-party titles that aren't on a rushed release schedule. Apex is a great example of the latter. Nobody knew it was coming, and it ended up being a polished game that will probably make EA a significant portion of money. Disclaimer:? I play Apex, and legitimately enjoy it. I also play Anthem, which although not the _best_ game in the world, is still of pretty high production value from what I've played.

debacle 8y ago
Apex is a great game. Throw in some force powers, lightsabres, and holocrons, and you suddenly have a great Star Wars game.
pnw_hazor 8y ago
Though from what I read, EA allegedly had zero input into Apex. That might be why it is becoming popular. I just tried Apex a few days ago, it was pretty fun.
- grogenaut 8y ago
  How much input did they have into Titanfall 1&2? Those weren't exactly gangbusters.
  - pnw_hazor 8y ago
    EA gets a lot of the blame for TF 2's failure. "Of course, Titanfall 2’s disappointing sales aren’t as much to do with the nature of its content as much as it is about timing, and that’s entirely on EA. Sandwiching Titanfall 2 between Battlefield 1 and COD: Infinite Warfare hasn’t helped the game at all. Seriously, what were they thinking? Apparently, even the game’s producers were left in the dark behind the decision-making process." https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/poor-titanfall-2-sales-ea/ https://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/poor-titanfall-2-sales-e... https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/01/31/eas-anthem-delay-could-save-bioware-from-the-sad-fate-of-titanfall-2/#73d674f97a5e https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/01/31/eas-anthem-...

falcolas 8y ago

Disney's perfectly happy with EA's treatment of the Star Wars license, so what could be wrong? /s EDIT: Downvote away, but that is Disney's public stance on the topic.