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Side Quest, Episode 53: Rescuing Star Wars From Electronic Arts (Patreon)

Published:
2019-01-21 19:06:41
Imported:
2026-06
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Rescuing Star Wars From Electronic Arts -- CLS Side Quest

In 2012, Disney purchased all things Star Wars for $4 billion, and the following year it signed a lucrative deal with Electronic Arts that allowed (and still allows) EA exclusive development and publishing rights when it comes to Star Wars video games. Fast-forward to 2019, however, and you’ll quickly realize how badly EA has dropped the ball over the last six years. With only two major console or PC releases in that time (two mediocre multiplayer shooters from the same franchise), is it time for Disney to wrest control of Star Wars back from EA, and give it to a company more capable of delivering? The answer, of course, is yes. Colin's Last Stand: Side Quest is free of baked-in ads, product placement, and other obnoxious forms of advertising because of your support. Please consider subscribing to CLS' Patreon to show your support for independent content: http://www.patreon.com/colinslaststand Listen to Sacred Symbols, CLS' PlayStation podcast (also available on podcast services and here on YouTube): https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/STU5682506591 Listen to the CLS interview podcast, Colin’s Last Stand: Fireside Chats (also available on podcast services): https://soundcloud.com/colinslaststand Listen to the CLS retro podcast, Colin’s Last Stand: KnockBack (also available on podcast services): http://soundcloud.com/clsknockback Twitter: @notaxation Instagram: @clsmoriarty Facebook: /colinslaststand Colin's Last Stand is a product of Colin's Last Stand, LLC PO Box 1233 | Santa Monica, CA 90406 The videos below were used, in part, in the creation of this episode of Side Quest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtoHjGWc2s8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhDtFnpNOfE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekKth75c4bg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irw956jPLOA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sGwxgt_Ki8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwWLns7-xN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrIEW7woFFo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pR0o2fGyHg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EynKIV9EvYY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_e0qiZz7c The following stories were cited in this episode of Side Quest: https://www.barrons.com/articles/electronic-arts-has-a-lot-to-prove-in-2019-analyst-says-51547744619 https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/11/09/why-electronic-arts-stock-lost-245-in-october.aspx https://investorplace.com/2018/11/3-reasons-why-electronic-arts-stock-cratered-so-badly/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/10/30/disney-star-wars-lucasfilm/1669739/ https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/12/07/marvel-ultimate-alliance-3-the-black-order-announced-for-nintendo-switch https://consumerist.com/2013/04/09/ea-makes-worst-company-in-america-history-wins-title-for-second-year-in-a-row/ https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/15/report-texas-industrial-facilities-rank-first-illegal-water-pollution/ https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/judge-lights-michael-flynn-sold-country https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2018/05/08/electronic-arts-we-do-not-think-loot-boxes-are-gambling/#cad925419fd5 https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/06/ea-acquires-star-wars-game-license https://www.polygon.com/2014/1/18/5321760/star-wars-1313-trademark-abandoned https://kotaku.com/the-collapse-of-viscerals-ambitious-star-wars-game-1819916152 https://metro.co.uk/2017/11/29/viscreals-star-wars-was-game-canned-because-ea-think-linear-games-are-no-longer-popular-7117825/ https://kotaku.com/ea-cancels-open-world-star-wars-game-1831786371 https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/ea-vancouver-star-wars-games-1203109833/ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-01-16-ea-vancouver-now-working-on-smaller-star-wars-game-instead Imagery in this episode of Side Quest was acquired from Variety and Wikipedia. Additional imagery was acquired via a licensed Shutterstock account from the following artsits and photographers: Barone Firenze, Brian A. Jackson, Evlakhov Valeriy, Ivan Chudakov, Lauren Elisabeth, and Min C. Chiu.

Comments

Sean P.

I'm hoping that this near universal backlash throughout the industry brings results.

LastStandMedia
>>19115598

We'll see! Since the true nature of the EA-Disney deal was never disclosed (apart from chatter about it lasting a decade), we don't know any specifics. The real questions are: Is there an escape clause for Disney, and would they want out if they could bail?

Anonymous

In my opinion, the smartest thing they could do is just move all publishing in house and bring back Lucasarts. That way they could work with individual studios to make games that best fit their talants instead of accepting whatever EA pumps out. Just look at the results from back in the day: <a href="https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/450/679/0da.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/450/679/0da.jpg</a> And there are plenty of teams who have good ideas to pitch. Just look at Red Fly's Darth Maul action game (<a href="https://youtu.be/oxlOoS4NmIA)" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/oxlOoS4NmIA)</a> or Double Damage's pitch for an X-Wing game (<a href="https://youtu.be/83MAR5H5fAQ)." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/83MAR5H5fAQ).</a> This is the kind of stuff we could be getting instead of two mediocre/bad Battlefronts and a whole lot of nothing. Lucasarts wasn't perfect (considering they mismanaged the above Darth Maul game among many other things), but it was at least capable of putting out some really great games.

Marius Skarsem Pedersen

I just think about what an awesome game someone like MachineGames could make. A great story focused shooter with stealth mechanics and great characters. Wouldn't it be interesting to see what From Software would do with a lightsaber?

Blake Davis

Great vid as always. Hopefully the masses will run with this video and it hits on target with executives at EA. Their small paragraph statement speaks volumes to the trouble that’s going on over there. If i were to tell a boss, “Hey I’ve been working on this project for a couple years but I’m not really feeling it.” Then I wouldn’t have a job. To do it twice.....yikes

Justin Matkowski

It blows my mind when I see a company with such a prestigious IP, and absolutely ZERO sense of how to deal with it. The thing with Star Wars (keep in mind this is coming from someone who is, by no means, a fanatic - I'm pretty casual in my Star Wars fandom) that makes it so interesting is the variety of genres you could delve into. Shit, we had far more variety when our generation were kids with titles like Super Star Wars Trilogy, Dark Forces, and Shadows of the Empire as opposed to today's online shooter monopoly on the franchise. Can you imagine a Star Wars game where choices actually mattered (like The Witcher 3) with a Force gameplay hook as gratifying as Kratos Leviathan Axe? Dear God, they could PRINT their own money with that...

CTE

EA has mishandled Star Wars, and this should be fixed by ... Disney? I don't have much of a dog in this fight as I'm not a huge Star Wars fan but while Disney has managed to make a lot of money off their movies I wouldn't call their handling of the possibly the highest value IP in the world that great either. Funny that Disney might have messed up by doing the exact opposite of EA by releasing too much, too often (not to mention ruining their most iconic characters according to many fans). However, back on point, I agree with your video completely as for how to handle the games part of their business. I just don't think a lot of fans have that much confidence in Disney anymore, let alone EA.

Anonymous

I begin to wonder if EA doesn't secretly hate games - at the executive corporate level, not their devs. It's like their talent is to be this corporate giant and grind cash from the cashless, but they really wanted to be like a coal mining company but there's too many coal mining companies already so games are just what they fell into and their heart's just not in it. I mean if you have any love for games and genre, to have been given the reigns of Star Wars in video games... it's like being given the Holy Grail. And EA has done the equivalent of just shoving it in the back of the cupboard and only using that one mug that says "Life's a bitch and so am I."

Dav9834

EA has a lot of up and downs. I remember playing as a teenager the addictive Need for Speed II and III Hot Pursuit. Medal of Honor. SIM City, The Sims, Sims Online. And the amazing Black and White God Sim. And that's just the 90s/2000s ones. Even today it's mixed, with knockouts like A Way Out. I noticed a pattern of them publishing great games, then sucking the money out of most of the franchises sequels with much much less impressive games. You never know what you'll get with EA, unless it's Star Wars :facepalm:

Dav9834
>>19115684

Exactly, look at Shadows of the Empire on N64 or the beloved Rogue Squadron! They dumbed down flying on battlefront 1 and that put the nail in the coffin. I want a Rogue Squadren like the 1998 version. You'd think itd be a no brainer, and with today's technology and VR I could be IN the cockpit! But I doubt we'll ever see the game happen, at least done well. Not anytime soon either

Brian Dewire

Great episode as always. It's only January and we've already got the most depressing story of 2019 :(

Anonymous
>>19126285

Dude... don't tempt fate. We've got a lot of important movies and games scheduled to come out this year...

Anonymous

Colin, I have to say, it is a common misconception that EA cancelled Star Wars 1313. That game was never worked on by EA. It was a LucasArts project that was cancelled before the exclusivity deal.

Eric S

Well said. I could not be more disappointed with how EA has done Star Wars dirty. I really feel like they should have kept Amy Hen if’s game alive even with some difficulty it might have been having. Especially because it now is just another wasted potential game when it would in my opinion at least have been a good entry I mean come on it couldn’t t be worse than the Battlefront titles. Another great video Colin!

LastStandMedia
>>19115684

It's interesting to consider the idea that Disney -- whether under the LucasArts banner or something else -- would just bring it all in-house and deal with it there, as opposed to trusting an outside party dealing with a team of internal producers. Sounds messy. Then again, with Spider-Man, Sony, and Insomniac, they seemed to work it out. But I wonder if that game will be the exception to the rule.

LastStandMedia
>>19117163

I'm glad it resonated with you! Thank you for watching. Game dev is full of starts and stops, but it seems cyclical in EA's orbit.

LastStandMedia
>>19118764

It just takes an organization that's willing to plan and be patient. You gotta have the goods when it comes to Star Wars, and that goes for the games, too.

LastStandMedia
>>19119460

You're right that Disney hasn't exactly instilled much confidence in us, either. It's a damn shame, really.

LastStandMedia
>>19121170

Dude, just remove any and all respect for making games from the equation, and it still makes no sense because of the incredible lucrative potential of the deal, which has been completely squandered. I don't care how the original Battlefront did; they fucked it up long-term.

LastStandMedia
>>19123459

EA really meant something at one time. They're still a huge company and they put out some good stuff, but they don't have the respect they once did.

LastStandMedia
>>19128192

I never said it was! (Or that wasn't my intention, at least). They did have the option to proceed with it as-is (in stasis), take assets from it, utilize the team, leverage the lore, etc. None of that happened. That was my point.

LastStandMedia
>>19130492

I think cancelling Visceral's game, even more than this one, was probably a mistake. Would love to see more on it (and I'm sure we will one day).

Bruce McClain

I really wish EA would’ve handed over the reigns to Visceral for a single player-centric Star Wars game. I loved what they did with Dead Space 1 & 2 and I think they really know how to make a 3rd person action/adventure game. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan, but I’m a huge video game fan and marrying the two SHOULD be gold. Such a shame that EA has been so careless with the opportunity.

Bruce McClain
>>19115800

Holy shit I never even considered FromSoft! Souls combat with light sabers...yes please! And the boss fights they could make. Can you imagine a FromSoft designed boss fight with Darth Vader?!?!