EA to make Star Wars games for 'core gaming audience'

[Dasquian Belargic]

http://kotaku.com/ea-snags-exclusive-deal-to-make-star-wars-games-493178983


EA has secured an exclusive license to publish and develop Star Wars games, the company announced today. EA will handle all games for the "core gaming audience," while Disney will continue making mobile, social, tablet, and online Star Wars games.

:ohno

[Kyle Krogen]

I'm curious to what they mean by "Core". Does that mean the core of Starwars themed gaming, or the core of gaming in general? If they make Call of Duty: Tatooine I would play that game, however, the fact that it's EA I am extremely skeptical of this developer choice. If they give it to one of their good studios (Visceral, DICE) it could be okay. However, the general consensus after reading this news to a whole chatroom was "Groan!" and "Dear God why?!"

[Captain Untouchable]

I think this was a decision more about convenience than anything else: as long as SW:TOR continues to exist, Disney is stuck dealing with EA. Might as well work with the devil you know, as it were.

I'm in two minds over this - my brain has managed to find a round-about route to cautious optimism. The article confirms that DICE, Visceral, and BioWare are all going to be working on Star Wars titles in some form. We're also talking about the company that makes The Sims, Battlefield, Command & Conquer, Rock Band, Medal of Honor... if they find an idea that works, they sequel the bajeesus out of it. And lets face it: back in the day, the Star Wars gaming world had a lot of games that could stand to be flogged for sequels a little more. If anyone is going to make new instalments for series like Battlefront, X-Wing, Jedi Knight, and so forth... EA's desire to make a franchise as profitable as possible may have the beneficial side effect of letting those sequels happen.

There is a possibility that this might not totally suck. And at least we will definitely be getting more than just Star Wars: Angry Birds in the future, so that's a good thing.

:uhoh

[Figrin D'an]

In the words of one Lando Calrissian:

"This deal is getting worse all the time..."

[Crusader]

I am just glad it did not go to Activision Blizzard since their track record with movie franchises in the past years under Kotick is mildly said terrible. EA's ratio of doing good games is the highest in the industry. The only things that save Activision from falling out of the top ten of this statistic are the Blizzard Games and Call of Duty. So I guess I rather settle with EA's good mediocracy. It can't get worse than force unleashed.