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EA And Disney announce a multi-year Star Wars games agreement (http://ea.newshq.businesswire.com/press-release/company-news/walt-disney-company-and-ea-announce-multi-year-star-wars-games-agreement)


I'm guessing this will be related to new IP coming from episodes 7-9?

Did we really need another EA hate thread?

*shrug* It's one of the biggest gaming companies in the world getting the biggest new piece of IP we're likely to see for the next 5-10 years, it seemed worthy of comment.

I think it was the obvious move for Disney and not surprising.

I wonder what will happen to Lego Star Wars, those games are too much fun.

Glad I bought all my SW games off steam this weekend.

I'm not a fan of EA, and I'm not really in love with the idea of having to finally get Origin if they somehow make a decent SW game, but on reflection I'm not sure who else I'd rather have them give the rights to.  Just about all the big studios I can think of offhand have been a bit shit recently, as I recall anyway, and I can't see them going with a smaller one.

Yep.  In a world where so many produce crap and fail/ go under EA is at least not likely to go anywhere for a while.   Big corporations prefer to do work with big corporations.

Now the funny thing is Kail seems to think a decent SW game will come from the new episodes any more than the previous ones.

I wish Raven would get back into the SW game.  :(

Now wtih day one DLC, and an ending that needs to be retconned!

So I can safely continue to ignore every single Star Wars game produced for the next decade just like I did the previous decade? Done.

Oh no doubt.  I'm just foreshadowing the inevitable  :grin:

Personally I would either take pitches on a per-project basis or come up with my own game ideas then solicit offers to make them. I don't see why one place needs a broad swath of rights, especially a place like EA that can create a very narrow selection of game types.

Have Ninja Theory pitch a third person lightsaber combat game, Capcom a Star Wars fighting game, Namco a pod-racer game and EA a cover-based shooter. Bam.

In the long run I think a healthy Star Wars video game brand is worth much more than whatever is Disney is getting for exclusivity. Remember when EA made a Marvel fighting game?

I'm with Hammie.  I think I'll live.

Summed up: Bioware is now Disney's bitch.

(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mct0geRp1f1qdmvu3o1_1280.jpg)

sigh fucking sigh

When they closed down LucasArts I thought that's the direction they would head in. Also, from the press release:



Bioware's obviously a no-brainer, but DICE and Visceral called out as seemingly the only other two studios that will be working on Star Wars games? I guess I could see DICE obviously doing something like a Star Wars Battlefront game (Star Wars Battlefield?), with Visceral possibly doing some new trilogy tie-in games. With Disney's "we're going to churn out Star Wars movies every year" mentality though, I'm surprised to see such a seemingly restrained effort here with the games.

EA could get the exclusive rights to Planescape, hire all of Black Isle, and give the game a billion dollars in dev money - and I still wouldn't install Origin.

Three of our top studios or three of our only studios?

If you discount sports and social/mobile I'm not sure EA has much more than those three. Visceral Montreal is dead, EALA / Danger Close looks to be on its death bed. Maybe Maxis could make a SW sim game...

Yeah, I don't see this making a whole lot of sense for Disney. So no Lego Star Wars? No 3DS game of any kind? EA is one of many publishers that has doubled down on creating a smaller number of games in a narrow range of genres, most of which are not kid-friendly. Seems weird.

It makes sense because it means they do not have to spend any management time on a non-core market. Corporates are not good at this.

Lego star wars was neat, but not something to base corporate strategy on.

That, plus what games has Disney released that makes you believe they know jack about the games market?  They want to focus on movvies, tv and their parks and vacation industry.  Toys and games they obviously lump in together as merchandising for kids. Which makes sense based on traditional Disney approaches to everything.

Did you know that ESPN accounts for about 40% of Disney's operating income? (http://www.economist.com/news/business/21574463-wonderful-world-espn-sports-network-which-outmints-mickey-mouse-real-disney)

Maybe DICE will make Battlefield: Star Wars.

Mass Effect 4 will be a Starwars/Mass Effect crossover.

Criterion (unless you were counting that with Sports), Victory (working on that C&C game nobody cares about), and... fuck if I know really. Personally, I guess I don't really give all that much of a shit regardless since I don't really care enough about Star Wars itself (especially new Star Wars) to be excited for a game just based on the license, but from a business standpoint it seems odd. I mean, Visceral is probably freed up to do whatever at the moment, but at best I imagine DICE would have to divide their attention between Star Wars and Battlefield, and Bioware is still working on Dragon Age and Mass Effect games, so unless they start doing some more weird rebranding like they did when Victory was briefly branded as a Bioware studio, I'm not seeing how they're going to produce more than a trickle of SW product.

Yeah, which is still TV, but it's also part of the larger corporate umbrella. Disney is 4 main subsidiaries with lots of smaller affiliated corps under that name.  (ABC being under Disney Media w/ ESPN, for example)
http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/company-overview

Until such time as someone fucks up and actually hurts the brand, EA's going to be their go-to.  Disney's done the same in their other segments often enough.  DCP didn't operate the Disney Stores when they first opened, they were operated by a contracted company, which is why you saw them in every mall in America.  It diluted the band and hurt it, so Disney took it back and closed most.  Now you only see them in high-level malls and you're not going to have more than one per city.  (We work on them here, and that's direct from DCP)

I see games going the same way.  Disney Interactive looks to be OK with publishing but doesn't seem like they want to be a games dev for more than mobile games.  They've worked with EA and small companies in games go "Kaboom" far too often to be worth the effort.

Yes please to the Mass Effect/Star Wars, and to the Star Wars: Battlefield.  Also, Someone please get to making Jedi Academy/Outcast 2, or somesuch.  Maybe a Tie Fighter/X-Wing game with modern graphics.

That's what I want.  What I think we'll get is shitty movie tie-ins.

Battlefield Star Wars would unironically own incredibly hard, provided DICE actually did it. Sure, it'd have some godawful Battlelog like thing and poor balance but DICE are kings of sound and graphic design.

Battlefield star wars will sell like crazy.  They're probably in a meeting right now talking about how to transform whatever game they're already halfway finished with into star wars.  "Okay replace all the marine textures with storm trooper textures, turn the brown people into rebels and make the shanty town into ewok huts".  There could be droid classes, a third mandalorian faction.

Then they will fuck it up by trying to integrate over powered light sabres into the gameplay somehow.

So wait, I could actually get a Republic Commando sequel in some fashion then?

Sweet.


-edit- How u type

Also I know Battlefront existed. It kinda all sucked.

Yep, the gaming group I was with at the time tried SO HARD to like it. We only played it maybe 3 times despite all their gushing.

Just need to release a new version of this BF2142 mod with frostbyte 3 engine and they will make a billion $.
http://www.fsmod.com/

(http://i.imgur.com/9qDERN1l.jpg)

I chuckled when I realised that whoever made that image couldn't think of even one game made (rather than bought) by EA with a decent story.

Just embrace getting old.  Jesus Christ.

System Shock 2?

That was Eidos, I believe. 

Lego Star Wars will still be very much a doable thing. TT are owned by WB these days, so the DC game was a no-brainer. Talks to Disney and we now have the Marvel/Avengers game. I'm sure some kind of cross-licencing deal could be done between TT/WB/Disney/EA, since it requires no work from three of those involved and results in money hats for all.

KOTOR was just The Generic Bioware Storyline anyway:
(http://gza.gameriot.com/content/images/orig_320200_1_1257581825.png)

KOTOR2 was the one with the interesting story.

Isn't that mostly stock Hero's Journey stuff?

Humble origins, old mentor to teach you mysterious power, small group or individual questing for McGuffin to save the world, every hand against them and impossible odds?

Hell, I'm pretty sure Mission Impossible (the movie) fits most of those tropes. :)

For a while bioware were hilariously consistent, 'heroes journey' didn't really cover it.

Amnesia
Training
4 Planets (twist after planet 3)
Reveal ancient civilization
Win.

Not arguing with that. But then again -- it's a solid formula and Bioware did some good stuff with it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it was, I suspect, their motto.

Even now, they've only..tinkered. It's prologue, first conflict and resolution introducing overarching plot, multiple paths/areas that can be explored in any order, final area (twists, solidification of mystery/plot and intro to final battle), last battle, end.

It's not open world, but it gives the illusion of a lot more choice without requiring a ton of resources, and you can build a decent story onto it.

I would prefer to have someone do a standard story arc very well then something unique very poorly.

It's not just that this is stock Heroes' Journey stuff, it's a natural result of the conventions of an RPG. Namely, that the player be free to develop some aspect of their character's personality, backstory and friendships.

Hence:

amnesia and/or youth at the beginning (so that the character doesn't have an overly specific backstory that hamstrings your ability to shape a pathway through the game)
a martial and a magical companion (so you can make choices about what skills to develop in your own character)
you are important or central to some narrative that unfolds as time goes on (right, as compared to RPGs that make you out to be a faceless pawn stuck farming while the fate of the world is determined elsewhere)
there are ruins to explore (right, as opposed to what? monsters hanging out in the corner of a pub? dangerous enemies having a picnic in the town square?)

Anybody complaining about this kind of stuff is essentially complaining about RPGs, period. There are games that hand you much more specific, less open-ended characters to play and you play out their story as it was pre-written and guess what, they're not RPGs and then everyone complains about how those games are on rails, etc. There are games that tell much more specific stories and the same issue arises. Or character development isn't important at all and you're just one kind of skill-balanced character who fights other characters in a repeating setting or scenario, which are essentially just multiplayer first-player shooters.

Even Bethesda games, which are more open-ended than Bioware's, have most of these "cliches" because they *have* to. They solve the cliche of giving you a balanced party of companions by letting you basically be an overpowered ass-kicker who doesn't really have to worry about balancing against a companion.

Yep.  Next up: "You Are In A Tavern..." and "Kill Ten Rats"

Hey now, SimBeru had a lot of fans in the Pre-NGE days.    :drill: :why_so_serious:

And note, when a RPG dares to deviate from 'character saves the world' people whine like crazy (DA2).

They whined about a lot more than that with DA2.

Sure, but the other parts aren't relevant to this. The story structure is.

The same sort of complaining happened with ME2's structural deviation from '4 planets' too.

I'm not terribly interested in complaints from idiots.  Unfortunately, people who sell things are.

Kinda disagree, here.  It's entirely possible to notice that Bastilla is pretty much the exact same character as Aribeth and not suddenly hate all Elder Scrolls games since they contain dungeons.  There are tropes which we accept as being useful tools for avoiding having to spend hours trying to set up your world (dwarves, elves, etc.) and there are tools which are lazy narrative conventions (amnesia, magic dreams, etc.) which are kind of a cop-out in whatever medium you use them in, and don't get a special "except when Bioware does it" exemption because RPGs can't tell REAL stories or something.

Paelos, stfu and show bioware some respect.  :why_so_serious:

On a side note, you can't really compare Bioware games to Bethesda games. Bioware games are basically game systems wrapped around a story. Bethesda games are basically a thin story wrapped around a sandbox game.

Whenever I question Bioware, I just jump into the ME thread to see what kind of nutjobs they deal with as customers.  :grin: