Rumor on the Star Wars Game by Visceral and the Han Solo Spin-off Movie.
It seems like we’re long overdue on an official announcement regarding the Visceral Games Star Wars title, which is said to be the same style of action-adventure game as Uncharted. For now, we’ve heard a rumor about the game they’re making, and how development of one of the new movies has affected its development.
Two years ago, an informant of ours told us that an acquaintance he knew was working on a Star Wars game for Electronic Arts – specifically, their Visceral Games division. At the time, our informant told us that their acquaintance suggested that the game they were working on would be about a young Han Solo and would most likely come out in the same year that one of the spin-off movies would be released. Later, the same source expected a teaser for the game to be shown at E3 2015, but this did not come to pass.
From our informant:
As I told you my first source left and was mystified when it wasn’t announced at that years E3. He said the game was ready to be shown. Then he left EA and I didn’t hear much until recently. Anyway the guy who was brought in says that the staff who are left who were originally on the project felt that when they brought in the new lady they were scrambling to rewrite / redo almost the entire project because they were worried about stepping on the toes of the movie being made.
“That other lady”, of course, refers to Jade Raymond (Assassin’s Creed), who was hired later on to assist Amy Hennig (Uncharted) on the project. Continuing with the story:
Long story short. Source A and Source B and I were drinking and Source A asked B what was up with the game and why it wasn’t out. I didn’t even know B was working on the project at this point. B said the games been redesigned (plot wise, the art and stuff while obviously improved is largely the same as its still the SW universe). A asked why, B said he got the vibe that it was because it was covering too much of the same ground as the solo film project. A said that made sense as (like I previously told you) he got the vibe the story parts of the game were actually being directed by people at Lucas Film and not the creative team. Now the game is about some random smuggler and a largely different plot. It sounds like some of the baddies may be the same but it’s largely a new plot. So now it’s a totally different project with similar themes.
If the rumors are true, then it’s likely that most of the gameplay set-pieces will remain unchanged so much as the story itself should be revised. Odds are, this game won’t come out until a year after the Battlefront sequel is released, and EA will most likely promote that game first as it’s closer to completion. Still, we *might* get a glimpse of this at either Celebration or E3, so hopefully we’ll know more about the project sooner rather than later.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
While I’m hoping that we eventually get the Star Wars equivalent of Skyrim and the Fallout games in terms of a true RPG/sandbox experience (and not just another MMORPG, but a strong single-player experience where you get to interact with the in-game world in a lot more detail) I think this Uncharted-type SW game ought to be a fun ride.
What I’m hoping is that, since they have to retool this away from a Han Solo game to one about a new smuggler character, they find ways to capitalize on the fact that you’re a completely new character with a new story. The further away from simply reskinning the player character and recording new dialogue they get on this, the stronger the overall game experience is likely to be.
Looking forward to learning more about it as development continues.
Battlefront was a huge missed opportunity to have a single player focused on the soldiers of the war. I was hoping Rogue One would do it, and while they touched on it briefly, Not to the extent I hoped.
Agreed it was a missed opportunity, but that’s what happens when you hitch your wagon to a film release to leverage its marketing and visibility- you have an immovable deadline and things get cut. You have to remember that despite what fans like us believe, TFA was not a guaranteed success. Like any movie tie-in game, you have to get the game out before the film to capitalize on the good buzz before potentially bad film reviews can kill sales. It’s a cynical strategy, but given how much AAA game development costs, a fiscally prudent one.
This pretty much sums up my thoughts. A skyrim/fallout style Starwars game would be incredible.
Jade was the lead on a couple of good AC games so I’m sure she can pull this thing together. Granted, she was the EP on Watch Dogs…
EP?
executive producer
I’m very glad they changed it from being a Han Solo game. I just don’t need that, especially considering the movie coming out. I’ve always found the games that introduce new characters to be more interesting, as well. I’m a little worried about the process going on behind the scenes, though. It kind of reminds me of the tales of turmoil we used to hear about LucasArts in its latter days as a developer.
I want this game so much. Sounds like the changes were an improvement. Bring in new characters! I want this guy to be the new Kyle Katarn or Dash Rendar!
While I think it’s a better idea to use a new protagonist, they are going to lose a ton of sales because it’s not a Han Solo game. I think a lot more non-hardcore Star Wars fans and even older folks who aren’t regular gamers would’ve picked it up. I’m sure it’ll sell at least 7 million, but i think it would’ve done 10 with Han. I just want the game not to suck like Battlefront.
Because they really need the money………….
They are in the business to make money. Hence why they are a business.
Just because Battlefront didn’t give you want you wanted out of it (storyline I am assuming) doesn’t mean that it sucked. It never marketed itself as this epic story campaign game, it marketed itself as putting you right in the middle of the famous Star Wars battles, and it knocked it out of the park in that aspect. I never understood why the game got so much hate for being something that it never advertised itself to be. That’s like being mad at an apple for not being an kiwi.
Single-player was part of it. The multiplayer progression system was shallow and uninteresting. I agree it was great to be in the middle of a Star Wars battle and the game sounded and looked great, it just lacked any ambition to do anything different than any other shooter out there. Heck, Battlefield 1 has more trend bucking things in it. What can’t be argued is that it was obviously rushed to come out alongside VII
Lack of content upon release and dlcs were the big concerns.
Because some of us paid 60 bucks for half a game.
If someone doesn’t like it, it sucks to them. It’s subjective.
Then explain why Rogue One is huge with audiences, despite having a largely unknown cast of characters. This game will do just fine if it has a nice story and well-written characters.
He didn’t say that the game won’t do well, just not as well as it could have. Imagine if Rogue One starred Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Easy $1.5 billion. But it wouldn’t have made any sense story-wise, and Lucasfilm clearly respects that.
Han Solo hasn’t starred in many video games and they sold well. It’s a non issue.
This sounds great, I hope we don’t have to wait to long for it. Would nice to have a few options available for SW games again.
A random smuggler? Good.
I really, REALLY did not want Mr. Solo
to be the main character of this game. Let the universe expand and
explore all new characters, I really don’t want them milking the
character that we already know with both a film and game entirely
dedicated to.
Although that may be my own bias, as a Luke
Skywalker game between the events of VI and VII, on a quest to find
those Jedi temples; now that could be something in the future.
Like the Jedi Academy games or Mysteries Of The Sith but upgraded.
DASH RENDAR. DASH RENDAR. DASH RENDAR. DASH RENDAR.
Would have liked to have seen Kurt Russell play him in the 90’s since he has that Ford vibe without aping him too much.
Same here.
That would be insult to Kurt
No. No. No.
I’d really like to know the tone of Han Solo. Obviously comedy is going to be a big part or they wouldn’t hired the directors they did, I’m okay with it since Han is a pretty funny character long as they don’t go over the top like TPM or TCW film did. Might be a nice contrast to R1 which might be the darkest SW film made.
i would guess comedy mixed with a gangster film vibe.
Guy Ritchie. Not opposed to comedy so long as it is funny.
TPM was kids humor and TCW was just episodes strung together.
This will be an action comedy.
Imagine a GTA type of game based on Star Wars. That would be a massive hit!!
absolutely! an open world sw game would be awesome.
being able to choose where you want to start! Like either the Imperial death star or the Rebel base on Yavin 4!
stomping around in an AT-AT!!!
That sounds slow a boring.
Blowing stuff up of course!! The other side of the coin is racing around on speeder bikes.