EA seems to be making a concerted effort to turn around its bad image in the wake of some seriously disappointing games in recent years. Titles like Battlefield 5 and Madden NFL ended up being very controversial for their respective playerbases, with both games sharing issues of severely lacking content. In particular, EA’s titles from the Star Wars franchise have seen a lot of backlash from fans. However, for as much flak as Star Wars Battlefront 2 received, the game has made a serious comeback from its controversial release. Paired with the excellent singleplayer adventure in Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and EA’s made improvements.
However, with the reforming of Lucasfilm Games as a licensing brand rather than a game publisher/developer, Star Wars games will no longer be produced by EA exclusively. Already, this announcement has been followed by several new publishers announcing new Lucasfilm Games titles in development, from Bethesda’s Indiana Jones game to Ubisoft’s Star Wars game. Even if EA isn’t the sole publisher of Star Wars games, that doesn’t necessarily mean its respective development studios are done making Star Wars games. What it does mean is that, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, EA no longer has its stranglehold over the Star Wars IP in video games.
To clarify, EA is still willing and dutifully making Star Wars games, even at this very moment. The former-exclusive publisher made a statement saying they are “proud of our long-standing collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, which will continue for years to come.” On the Lucasfilm Games side, vice president Douglas Reilly went even further to say that there’s still “a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA,” so the publisher certainly isn’t done yet. That means comments from EA CEO Andrew Wilson earlier in 2020, regarding Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order being the start of a new game franchise, still ring true regardless of the loss of exclusivity.
All of the speculation on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2 or the next Battlefront game isn’t moot, it just means that other publishers like Ubisoft will get to work with the Star Wars IP in games as well. For reference, the reforming of Lucasfilm Games as a brand wasn’t strictly for removing EA’s development exclusivity. Bethesda Softworks announced that Machine Games, the developers behind the Wolfenstein reboot, are working on an Indiana Jones games. Ubisoft Massive, the team behind The Division, is working on a new open world “story-driven” Star Wars game. Opening up the Star Wars IP to other studios hasn’t excised EA from Star Wars as a result.
It’s unfortunate for EA and its development studios that fought hard to eliminate the stigma left behind from games like Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront 2. To be fair, it wasn’t just EA’s efforts in the Star Wars IP that gave the publisher the notorious reputation it has today. Games like the aforementioned Battlefield 5 and Madden NFL 2021 brought controversy to EA in recent years due to the egregious lack of content. However, for a game which was constantly ridiculed by fans for its own microtransaction scandal, Star Wars Battlefront 2 has seen massive improvement in added free content as well as addressing progression and microtransaction issues.
That’s without even mentioning the success that was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the first major singleplayer effort under EA’s Star Wars games. After the Respawn Entertainment studio had proven itself with Titanfall and Apex Legends, both of which were developed on game engines other than Frostbite, Jedi: Fallen Order broke the mold for EA’s Star Wars games. The game was strictly a singleplayer Jedi-fueled RPG, severely different from EA’s usual wheelhouse of multiplayer live-service games. Even though the game ended up releasing too little, too late for EA, it helped retain the Star Wars gaming fans who were ready to burn the bridge from EA’s exclusivity.
However, the unfortunate reality is EA’s reputation was sullied to the point that these kinds of games were made out of desperation, rather than creative drive. That’s not to say the developers at Respawn Entertainment didn’t want to make Fallen Order. Rather, EA wasn’t willing to green light that type of project because it wasn’t anything remotely like its most successful live-service games. This is evidenced by the many Star Wars games that EA has notably cancelled, such as Visceral Games’ Project Ragtag and Yuma. Obviously now it’s easy to say that, with this new context, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was planned towards the end of EA’s exclusivity deal with Disney.
Without Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order proving that Star Wars games didn’t need to be live-service powerhouses, games like Star Wars: Squadrons wouldn’t have existed. EA losing the exclusive publishing rights for Star Wars isn’t going to put these kinds of games in jeopardy, even if that could change in the future. The reforming of Lucasfilm Games simply means EA has less of a monopoly on Star Wars as it once had prior. Plus, additional Lucasfilm properties and LucasArts franchises can now (potentially) return as well. EA will still have the opportunity to make Star Wars games, but other creative minds now have the chance to make Star Wars games as well.
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