VIDEO Lucasfilms moving on from EA?

So I recently read an article that Lucasfilms was considering moving on from EA. It stated that they were talking to ubisoft and activision. is there any validity to it?

 

My guess is that it is mostly rumors nothing I would take to seriously. If they did take the IP away that would be good, but don’t get your hopes up.

 

If there are rumors, they might be exploring options due to Battlefront II underperforming and being the subject of some controversy, but exploring options =/= change for sure.

 

It’s possible that they could still let EA develope games, but also expand it out to other developers as these rumors mention.

 

Disney has sometimes licensed the same property to different developers in the past (Aladdin going to Virgin and Capcom comes to mind), so it's not outside the realm of possibility, but I would be surprised if EA was okay with that kind of arrangement given their approach to sports titles.

 

I doubt that this is anything outside of Disney preparing a contract for after EA's license runs out in a few years. Although, if EA were stripped of the license, I'm curious what this means for the "unified canon" that Disney have been touting. This would be the first major challenge to the new Star Wars canon, because there are swathes of lore dependent on the EA Battlefront games.

While I don't think the EA logo features on either novel, Inferno Squad and Twilight Company both come under the Battlefront banner. It also raises questions about what happens to the canon status of Battlefront 2's campaign. If what's happened to Marvel games in the past is anything to go by, then EA losing the right to make Star Wars games will result in the wholesale shutdown of publication of existing games. Which would mean everything Iden Versio and her squad goes through in that game would be declared entirely non-canon. I don't see Disney pushing a sub-franchise that ends up dead and buried after the breakdown of a corporate relationship. Does this mean that the books tied to those games would also be removed from circulation? While Disney could easily afford recirculation of these books without the Battlefront title attached, it would be cheaper and more realistic to pull those titles from existence.

We're potentially looking at the first heavy hammer blow to Disney-era canon. Which just goes to prove what I have said for years. Canon is only a buzz word for marketing and selling merchandise. I don't understand why people take that word so seriously with this franchise. It wasn't sacred before, and it's not sacred now.

 

EA is the devil and Disney should free themselves for that tyranny asap

 

Oh yeah Disney is definitely the weaker partner in that relationship.

 

Probably just rumor and speculation at this point. Only by Star Wars and EA standards could Battlefront II sales be called less than great (at least several million I think?). The bigger problem was all the bad press, and how EA hasn't really used the Star Wars license much aside from Battlefront (and a lot of that is probably borrowed from Battlefield). EA's approach probably does suit Disney (new mobile game every year or so), but they probably wouldn't mind more console games. And not like SWTOR will last forever either (not that I'd say its in great shape now either).

Its kind of odd to think of how nu-canon might be affected if they changed publishers/developers. Not that I would miss Battlefront or even SWTOR that much. I'm still a tiny bit annoyed they took down Tiny Death Star with little warning (I barely even knew how to play that game but just still miss that aesthetic).

 

The mobile game license isn't exclusive to EA, and Disney are reportedly unamused by the toxicity surrounding the Star Wars brand within what they believe should be a very lucrative business avenue. There were reports that the last minute removal of microtransactions was demanded by the very top echelons of Disney management in a phone call to the head of EA, because they were angry that the Star Wars brand was being dragged through such needless controversy just before the release of a new movie.

That the controversy involved lawmakers debating whether Star Wars was being used to push gambling upon impressionable children is also bound to have angered Disney, given that they spend a lot of money and manpower on maintaining its image as the wholesome, family friendly company that it has created for itself.

I don't believe EA is going to lose the license before the contract was due to expire, but don't kid yourself into believing that Disney are happy with how EA are handling it.

 

Exactly. You can only imagine the internal response at Disney HQ when Hawaii senator Chris Lee summed up Battlefront II as:
"This game is a Star Wars-themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money, it's a trap"

Disney's likely view would be that that should never have happened at all.

 

It better, preferably with NO ONE getting exclusive rights to make Star Wars games but rather multiple devs trying their hand out. Damn it, that Rogue Leaders compilation on Wii would be awesome to play, especially since Factor 5 has been back for almost a year now & little work needs to be done to update it & get it out on shelves since it was completed before they (Factor 5) went under.

 

I wish I had the ingenuity to turn every news about Star Wars into a "heavy hammer blow to Disney-era canon".

 

I'm not sure what your point is. I barely talk about canon, let alone turn every news about Star Wars into a doomsday message about it. But okay.

I think it's a relevant observation when it comes to this topic. When Activision lost exclusivity to the Marvel license we saw the distribution of several titles completely cease, including that relatively popular Deadpool game by High Moon Studios. If EA were to lose the similar deal that it has in place with Disney for the Star Wars license, then it's reasonable to assume that the same would happen to Dice's Battlefront titles and whatever Respawn interactive are working on. You would assume that would have some kind of impact on the "One universe, one canon" approach that Disney have been explicitly pushing since taking over Lucasfilm.

I don't particularly care for any form of canonicity. I'd happily watch it all burn to the ground, just as I happily watched the previous canon go up in flames. I also think it's amusing that, if Disney were to tear up the contract that it has with them, EA has screwed up so badly that Disney and Lucasfilm are willing to throw out almost everything when it comes to how they've been marketing the wider Star Wars IP just to wash off the stink that EA has caused.

 

The Lego TFA game was published by WB Interactive (developed by Traveler's Tales), not EA. Is that because the contract for the Lego games precedes EA's exclusivity contract?

 

I assume that falls under the domain of the Lego license which is pretty old at this point. Most likely the EA exclusivity deal included an exception for that.

 

Problem is though currently, there isn't a consistent company that could make decent star wars games.. Bethesda could make a decent open world RPG for Star wars but that is it.. We need more single player games and potentially a new MMO for star wars.. But company wise.. who?

 

I was going to say, there is zero chance Disney signed a contract where they didn't own all IP related to derivative works. They might not get the models or code but the storylines, characters etc would all be theirs.

 

Would've liked the Darth Maul game, Battlefront 3 and 1313, maybe somehow they'll be made in some form someday soon. I don't really forgive Disney for picking EA and also cancelling quite a few good games that were in various stages of development.