Rumor: With Super Mario Odyssey Outselling Battlefront II, Disney May Look For New Developers To Handle Star Wars Games

Super Mario Odyssey

Hoo, boy, Star Wars Battlefront II. The sequel was looking to right the course for Electronic Arts with their handle on the Star Wars brand after the first Battlefront launched with a minimal amount of content in the base game, but sadly enough, the product was ultimately damaged by plans to feature aggressive microtransactions against the wishes of the developers, resulting in sales falling significantly short of expectations. It’s recently come to light that Super Mario Odyssey has outsold it – and rumor has it that Disney is less than happy about EA’s handling of their franchise.

 

The initial report comes from Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips, who observed that as of the end of last month, Super Mario Odyssey is well ahead of Star Wars Battlefront II in terms of overall sales:

 

 

Now, on to the good stuff…

 

Why Super Mario Trouncing Battlefront Is A Big Deal

 

Let’s just put things into perspective: Battlefront II was released across the PS4, Xbox One, and PC platforms. Super Mario Odyssey outsold Battlefront II on only one platform: the Nintendo Switch. Sure, Nintendo’s first-party exclusives tend to sell incredibly well since that’s basically the reason you’d buy a Nintendo console in the first place, but still – this reflects rather poorly on Star Wars Battlefront II. A big takeaway here, and one that goes against EA’s general direction as a company, is that single-player titles are far from dead. To say that they have egg on their face after cancelling Visceral’s intended single-player game to rework it into a multiplayer thing is likely a massive understatement.

 

 

EA has had the Star Wars license for nearly five years now and they only have two games to show for it, with no word on any future projects in spite of a massive number of resources available for the company to make games with. Nobody knows when or if the project that killed Visceral Games is going to come out, but at this point it can be argued that more should have been done for such a popular IP like this. Let’s take a quick look at why things are in a messy position right now before getting into the most important part of this article.

 

Battlefront II, As DICE’s Game, Wasn’t The Problem

 

Rest assured that EA is the company to blame here; DICE, who actually developed the title, did good course-correction for the Battlefront brand with the sequel as they made the follow-up. The three biggest complaints about the original game were as follows:

  1. There was no representation for the Prequel Trilogy or Sequel Trilogy Eras.
  2. The game had a lack of content at launch, and a lot of stuff was hidden behind a post-launch DLC paywall.
  3. There was not a single-player campaign.

So their immediate solution was to make a sequel that addressed all of these problems. Firstly, the game would put emphasis on featuring stuff from every era up front, with a handful of maps for each specific time period (even if the overall content would skew toward the Original Trilogy, which already had assets made for it from the first game). Secondly, the new game would not only feature triple the amount of content that the first game had at launch, but all DLC developed for the title would be released for free and for all players. Thirdly and finally, the game would get a single-player campaign with a story tied to the new movies. Gameplay was further refined to what fans had in mind, and DICE had everything ready for a crowd-pleasing sequel.

 

So what went wrong?

 

 

The Ludicrous Amount Of Microtransactions Damaged Battlefront II – And EA’s Brand

 

If you’ve been following the games industry for a while, there are a number of AAA publishers that have questionable reputations with gamers for certain business practices, but perhaps none have it worse than Electronic Arts – and perhaps deservingly. However, EA is also a massively-successful company, and one with tons of resources to develop multiple titles at once, so it initially seemed like it would be perfect to help re-establish Star Wars as the cash cow in the Disney era, even if this was to the displeasure of fans who were still reeling from Lucasfilm pulling the plug on LucasArts. While a list of abuses and general grievances could cover articles by themselves, let’s just focus on how decisions from on high screwed Battlefront II. Or rather, one in particular: the forced integration of loot crates and the addition of microtransactions to purchase them or in-game credits.

 

Gameplay for Battlefront II, like its predecessor, was based around players gaining in-game experience to gain access to better weapons and skills – something fairly normal for modern competitive FPS games. Unlike the first game, EA encouraged the developers to include microtransactions – small purchases with real-world currency to benefit players with in-game items. On their own, if implemented correctly for things like cosmetic features, players won’t have significant problems with these aside from the occasional bit of inevitable internet grumbling. But the problem with Battlefront II‘s microtransactions is that they were all but necessary to actually progress in the game – unless, of course, you were willing to spend literally thousands of hours trying to grind for the necessary components to unlock everything the old-fashioned way. If you didn’t fork over any extra money, you’d have to deal with players who had unfair advantages over you because they shelled out enough money to get the best weapons and hero units.

 

Suffice to say, consumers were rather cross with EA once it became clear that this was part of their game plan with the October beta, and the backlash against this practice was so controversial that EA’s stocks dropped by billions of dollars in value, even if the company later recuperated some of these losses. Fans called upon one another to boycott the game or at least the microtransactions until they were outright pulled, and it got so bad that Disney put their foot down and told EA to pull the plug on them altogether, which the company did by the time the game actually launched. But at this point, the damage had been done – Star Wars Battlefront II underperformed to sales expectations and any goodwill they might have gained from DICE’s changes to the sequel has been squandered.

 

While the game is no flop, it has been stated that it’s currently sold 1 million copies less than what EA was hoping for at this point in time, and this is still well below what it’s predecessor sold. So now EA is back at Square One with the Battlefront franchise because they got greedy, and they arguably put themselves in a worse position than earlier due to the dissolution of Visceral Games and the cancellation of their single-player title in favor of reworking it into something different under another studio, leaving 2018 without a new Star Wars game. And if the rumors are true, then these two major setbacks may have cost them full control over the Star Wars license.

 

 

Rumor: Disney May Be Rethinking Their Contract With EA

 

Based on the testimony of Cinelinx writer Jordan Maison, Lucasfilm is seriously rethinking letting EA have the only keys to the kingdom after they have relatively little to show for their efforts. Whether or not Disney is going to sever ties with EA isn’t clear at this point (and I’d doubt it, considering that they’ll probably want to do at least one more Battlefront and whatever games are already in development), the rumor is that they’re looking at two other developers to work on future Star Wars games: Activision and Ubisoft. Both developers are similarly massive in terms of resources, and while both have controversies of their own with their player bases, both have significantly better reputations than EA.

 

Even still, Lucasfilm currently has a contract with EA that should last until at least 2023; how that would be affected is unclear at this time, though Maison notes that there’s apparently a clause that would allow Lucasfilm to “alter the deal” and either split the license between multiple companies or take it away from EA altogether. Furthermore, Lucasfilm is still in touch with EA, apparently holding meetings with the game company’s executives to figure out how they can prevent having yet another fiasco that might leave players irritated. The article itself states that right now, it seems like this is being used as a negotiation tactic to motivate EA to stop making the same mistakes over and over, as these talks with Activision and Ubisoft are just that: talks. But still – expect Disney to apply pressure to EA in order to get the most out of their games going forward; they can’t afford for EA’s next Star Wars title to be mired in controversy.

 

+ posts

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.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

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.

108 thoughts on “Rumor: With Super Mario Odyssey Outselling Battlefront II, Disney May Look For New Developers To Handle Star Wars Games

  • February 17, 2018 at 6:44 am
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    Star Wars should be looking at titles like Last of Us/Uncharted. Story driven single player games that can have multiplayer, but they tell a story first. Heck, even an open world game like Mordor/Fallout would be a welcome addition.

    The biggest problem with Battlefront is that it’s mostly multiplayer. Signing on and getting killed over and over by someone who doesn’t have a full time job is annoying.

    • February 17, 2018 at 8:38 am
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      Yes! And that is exactly the game EA cancelled because it would not have allowed them to exploit predatory microtransactions. In fact, I think the project lead was hired from Uncharted.

      For what they’ve done to the Star Wars IP and my personal favorite IP (Mass Effect) and former favorite developer (Bioware), I long for the headline “RIP EA”

      • February 18, 2018 at 4:24 am
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        Don’t forget how EA killed off innovation in (American) football games when they got the exclusive contract with the NFL. At the time, 2K Sports was offering competing games AND selling them for $19.99 on release day. EA hates competition, which leads to less innovation.

        • February 20, 2018 at 1:44 am
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          They couldn’t have done that without the NFL though

          • February 20, 2018 at 5:25 am
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            The NFL/NFLPA doesn’t care about the games or their quality. They simply care about how fat of a licensing check that they are given. When EA presented them a check larger than they were getting from multiple publishers combined, why wouldn’t they award them exclusivity?
            I can’t fault the NFL or the Player’s Association one bit, unfortunately.

          • February 20, 2018 at 2:50 pm
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            They still had to accept it.

    • February 17, 2018 at 9:03 am
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      The Last of Us is a really good game, but once you’ve completed it, there’s little to entice you to keep playing it. I ended up playing it twice, as I enjoyed it so much, but it still has limited longevity. Even superior games like Dark Souls III suffer from the same fate.

      Multiplayer FPS have longevity that story based single players simply do not possess in my opinion.

      • February 17, 2018 at 10:53 am
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        I don’t see this as a problem. At least not for anyone trying to create a great experience. Not every game is designed to be played over and over.

        I’d never want all games to copy a MP design goal. Or a game as a service. Sometimes you want a complete adventure that was amazing, but ends.

        Basically… I’d happily toss Battlefront, Battlefield, Call of Duty in the void never to be seen again for ONE The Last of Us.

        • February 17, 2018 at 1:11 pm
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          If a limited experience is what you’re after, then I can’t really counter that argument.

          However, I would have thought a multiplayer-player game would be the most popular option, and the Battlefront type of game would be the closest to a gamer capturing the all-round SW experience.

          It would be interesting to see which type of SW game would sell more units? The Battlefront, or the SW RPG?

          • February 17, 2018 at 1:36 pm
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            Well from a financial stand point MP is most certainly the option of choice for companies if not always the gamers. That’s why you see so many games shifting to that model. Often with mixed results. Companies are trying to find that balance that doesn’t anger the base while also making them a continual profit.

            I’m absolutely fine with a product only giving me a certain amount of enjoyment. Look at a movie. You watch it once or twice… maybe even 10 times in your life time. The same can be said for a good game. It doesn’t always have to be something you’d play endlessly to leave an impression. Some of my favorite games have been one and dones.

            To me MP can be just as limiting. Especially if you’ve played enough of them. Even humanity plays in patterns… predictable moves etc. I learned the basic skill set of MP FPS from counter-strike when I was 15… I’m 34 now and the things I learned there are relevant to this day in MP games.

          • February 17, 2018 at 2:21 pm
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            I really do hope they release at least two games. Battlefront gamers like myself can continue to be catered for, and the rest (like yourself) can hopefully find what you are looking for also.

          • February 17, 2018 at 4:07 pm
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            Oh absolutely. I have no problem with MP games existing. I enjoy quite a few. I just don’t ever want them to become the dominant choice. I love my single player offline games!

      • February 17, 2018 at 4:32 pm
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        Hey, I’ve re-played games like The Last of Us, Half Life, and the Zelda series more times than I could count. I don’t know what that says about me but there are plenty of us out there that will find re-playability in single player titles.

      • February 17, 2018 at 10:48 pm
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        Longevity is pointless if no one buys the game. If the Last of Us wasn’t making money they wouldn’t be making a sequel to it.

        Longevity only matters for the EA model of mini purchases.

      • February 19, 2018 at 12:34 am
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        I had all that games for ps3 replayed once a year and bought all of it for ps4. Look at the selling of each of these games. Compare with Battlefront. See? A good story will always beat “longevity”. I take these games more to be an interactive movie. I come back to revisit the story, the characters I care about.

      • February 20, 2018 at 1:43 am
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        Yes, but that’s a matter of preference. Doesnt mean one is superior.

    • February 19, 2018 at 12:30 am
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      LOok how many likes you have. Seems to me most of us agree. They had a writer of the first two Uncharted or the last game and then they decidet to cancel it….

  • February 17, 2018 at 6:49 am
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    They should reform Lucasarts, they made great games (mostly)

    • February 17, 2018 at 12:04 pm
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      Then maybe they could dig up 1313 and finish it. I was really looking forward to that title.

      • February 17, 2018 at 6:12 pm
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        exactly !

      • February 17, 2018 at 6:14 pm
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        Indeed, but after the lootbox fiasco, EA has shown their true colors, the game is actually pretty nice, but the progression system all rigged up, I really hope they change studios

      • February 20, 2018 at 1:43 am
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        That game was not close to being finished

        • February 20, 2018 at 6:55 pm
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          Of course I have no inside knowledge on it’s status when canned, but what we were privy to looked great.

    • February 17, 2018 at 4:32 pm
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      A new X-wing type simulator would be awesome, and Star Wars Galaxies 2 would actually get me playing games again.

      • February 19, 2018 at 12:27 am
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        I was never able to make it work on modern pc. I have the ps2 sequel on my ps4 and the kinect version. But the original is the best on. Would love to replay it.

  • February 17, 2018 at 8:29 am
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    I own tons of Star Wars games and have bought them over the years. But EA hasn’t released a game I was interested in years and that includes Battlefront. Battlefront 2 from 15 years ago has more content.The state of Star Wars games is pretty sad.

    • February 17, 2018 at 8:43 am
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      The original BF2 is still a better game. There’s a great meme that I couldn’t find, but it had:

      Kylo Ren (BF2 game box head): “Look how old you’ve become”

      Lor San Tekka (Original BF2 game box head): “something far worse has happened to you”

      Too true

      • February 17, 2018 at 8:54 am
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        OMG found it on google images. That’s great!

  • February 17, 2018 at 8:55 am
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    Battlefront II is actually a really good game. I speak as someone who plays it regularly, and gets much joy from it. The game is so much better than its predecessor, but its biggest flaw is the development model. There is clearly a lack of commitment there. DLC has been quite poor since launch, with only the additional map Crait, worthy of a mention. I knew this would happen due to the backlash over Battlefront 2015, and the change of stance. They should have kept the season pass, or had micro transactions limited to cosmetic upgrades, such as the option to purchase skins for the in game characters. I have no issues with the grinding, simply because it adds longevity to the game, and the difference between the edge over your competitors who have upgrades weapons, etc is not really too great. Sorry, I don’t subscribe to the play-to-win BS, as ultimately its skill and tactics that determine how well you perform during a game.

    Single player modes have limited longevity, playing against AI drones have limited satisfaction compared to real world multiplayer in my opinion. The campaign mode of BF II had little to entice me there, aside from the story element. I haven’t even bothered to check out the second part of the campaign since I go straight to Galactic Assualt, which I’m very satisfied playing with.

    • February 17, 2018 at 6:16 pm
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      What do you know, I agree with you on this.

  • February 17, 2018 at 8:57 am
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    Though, I won’t get my hopes up, It would be a miracle if this rumor turns out to be true; it would give way for other game developers, indie developers and veteran SW developers (Factor 5) to take reins on the SW license to make Star Wars games.

  • February 17, 2018 at 9:20 am
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    I enjoyed battlefront II, and the graphics were great, but there is SO much more you can do with the Star Wars brand. If I don’t get Skyrim but for Star Wars in my lifetime I will be very cross.

  • February 17, 2018 at 9:22 am
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    If this is true, all I can say is–It’s about fucking time. Over 5 years and still waiting for a real Star Wars game to even be conceptualized.

  • February 17, 2018 at 10:01 am
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    I don’t play video games, but it sounds like EA fucked up.

  • February 17, 2018 at 10:48 am
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    Star Wars can literally be in every genre and work. EA is limiting it’s scope. We could have card games, RTS, FPS, RPG, flight sims, arcade styled games. You name it. The fact EA basically drip fed us half a game and full game with questionable loot crates in all that time?

    Yeah… I’d look elsewhere. I think at the time Disney was simply overwhelmed with all the products Star Wars was. Comics, books, movies, series, toys and now videogames. They figured off load it to a massive third party and let them handle it.

    Now I think they realize a little personal touch could go a long way. Maybe don’t let them have the entire license. Let many different studios and publishers tap in for a game or so.

    Total War recently proved they could step outside their comfort zone to great success. Imagine a Star Wars game based on their RTS engine?

  • February 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm
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    Please be true 😀

  • February 17, 2018 at 12:01 pm
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    Just give me a Far Cry open world FPS based on Star Wars (which can have a multiplayer add-on) it can easily take place over multiple eras over many years and sequel games…it would sell by the millions. it’s not rocket science, even Far Cry or Just Cause type games have season passes.

    • February 17, 2018 at 6:20 pm
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      “Just” 😉

  • February 17, 2018 at 1:31 pm
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    If they perhaps made a remake of Empire at War or similar star wars strategy game I would buy it in a second, but it seems they focus on shooting games only

    • February 17, 2018 at 4:29 pm
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      I more or less stopped playing games a few years ago because they are getting simpler all the time. I think developers think they can appeal to a wider audience with games which can be played without thinking too much and without any real learning curve. The problem being those games get dull for people quite quickly, but of course the developers have made their money by that time. Even the total war games after Napoleon aren’t really strategy games. I haven’t played a game I’ve really enjoyed for years.

  • February 17, 2018 at 1:52 pm
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    I’m a big fan of the Sims games from the beginning and they were great games but as time went on and EA got more and more control of the property the microtransactions would show up. The base games would have less and less content with more and more paid add ons pushed on the public and I became disenchanted with the series. I haven’t even tried Sims 4 because of this. As for Battlefront II I enjoyed the campaign quite a bit but as someone who doesn’t play online, I turn the game on and am greeted with screens showing me many parts of a game I can’t play unless I spend money on it. Man I’m glad I’m primarily a retro gamer. I can plug in my NES and play a full game with no loading time and no begging for money from the developer.

    • February 17, 2018 at 4:24 pm
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      My daughter has the Sims 4 and hasn’t bothered me about buying her extras so I guess it’s not that bad (she bothers me constantly about buying god-damned Robucks). I bought battlefront 1 to play with my kid, but we both got bored of it within a couple hours- 3 maps I think in the base game? DLC available on day of release? Total con. We had more fun playing the star wars games on Disney infinity than battlefront.

  • February 17, 2018 at 2:40 pm
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    oh my my….clearly this is EA, but where do KK and Disney fit into this ? It sounds like a lot is in disarray over at Disney for Star Wars in general. Even if they wanted to hand over the game to EA, it’s not a set and forget deal. I think Disney have a responsibility here too not to be too greedy.
    For all the negativity that you see online for the movie side of things, at least the fans are vocal and simply don’t take anything they give us as gospel.

  • February 17, 2018 at 2:47 pm
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    Not defending Battlefront II here…I agree with all of the criticisms and am myself disappointed in the largely vanilla campaign (I prefer single player gaming so the multiplayer stuff doesn’t win me over). That being said, owning a Switch and recently completing 100% of Super Mario Odyssey, I can see why it’s outselling it, and I don’t think it’s fair for people to compare and say “Why aren’t you outselling Mario?”

    True, BF2 is not a very good game. However, Mario is a 10. It’s an amazing game. And any game would be hard pressed to compete with it. I have little interest in BF2’s multiplayer format and beat the campaign in around 6 hours (plus 1.5 hrs for DLC). And this time includes the crazy amount of cinematics (though I admit they may be the best part of the game – and that’s kind of a problem for media that’s supposed to be interactive).

    I’ve been playing nothing but Mario since Christmas and I just recently beat it (it was only after this that I went back and played the Resurrection campaign missions in BF2). Since CHRISTMAS. That’s how much content is in that game. It’s unreal. Every kingdom is unique and just about every challenge fun and engaging. I would rather play Mario Odyssey through again from the beginning than play one more hour of live-die-repeat…

    • February 17, 2018 at 6:18 pm
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      I’m considering to by a switch simply to play this game and the most recent Zelda. My Switch owning friends have been talking about these games nonstop for months.

      • February 17, 2018 at 7:52 pm
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        I also have Zelda (I actually bought the Switch mainly for it), but I started playing Mario first because my son wanted to play it, and I thought I’d play it at the same time so I could help him if he got stuck. I’ve not even played Zelda yet. Can’t wait.

        The best thing about the Switch to me is it’s pick-up-and-play simplicity. No ridiculous loading times. You can play it anywhere. And the different play styles available are really fun to “switch” between. I’ve found myself playing it handheld on the couch while my wife watches TV, on the table top with the disconnected joy cons at a family gathering, and downstairs on the TV with the pro controller. Every single method is fun and easily playable. It’s my favorite system hands down.

  • February 17, 2018 at 3:30 pm
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    I bought Battlefront 2 and it lasted about three days before I moved on. This sounds like it’s for the best.

  • February 17, 2018 at 6:12 pm
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    Create Dark Forces 2/3 with the visual quality of BF2, a good single and multiplayer campaign, and you will have a hit. Multi player, just shoot each other, FPS are booooring.

    • February 17, 2018 at 6:16 pm
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      Jedi Knight 4 would be nice 🙂

  • February 17, 2018 at 6:15 pm
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    I only watched playthroughs of BF2 because I was interested in the story but I won’t put up with lootboxes in full priced games, even if it’s a Star Wars game. And I say this as someone whose salary is probably paid partially by lootboxmoney.

    • February 17, 2018 at 7:02 pm
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      Do you work in the game industry? I develop games myself though I haven’t released one commercially yet, just freeware. My next game though I’m going to put on Steam and at least one console.

      • February 17, 2018 at 7:08 pm
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        Yes I’m a 3d sculptor. However, atm I’m more focused on tabletop figurines but I can do low and high-poly sculpts depending on the project. I do have experience with engines like Unity and UE but I am not a programmer so I couldn’t do a game from scratch without help.

        • February 17, 2018 at 7:20 pm
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          Cool!

        • February 17, 2018 at 7:44 pm
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          Awesome. I’ve done a little 3D Sculpting in ZBrush and modeling in Maya but am by no means good. Professionally I’ve held positions as a graphic designer and currently software engineer but not in game design. I make games on the side though and hope my next game is good enough that I can quit my job. But that is many years off.

          Do you do any environment modeling or just sculpting?

  • February 17, 2018 at 6:53 pm
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    I was hoping for a good SW game with Level1313 then with the Visceral game. Its clear now that EA has no interest in releasing a good SW game – only a live service to pull out money dressed in SW skin. Not interested in anything EA is producing.
    Here are some memorable games which granted me many hours of good SW fun from the golden age of SW Games:
    1) original X-wing, then Tie Fighter but mostly TIE and all its datadisc
    2) Dark Forces – from the 1st Doom like title to Jedi Academy of course including datadisc like DF2: Mysteries of the Sith
    3) Rebellion strategy – endless game, sometimes like 6h per day at my student ages
    4) SW Battlegrounds strategy
    5) Battlefront 1 and 2 – the original one, not the shitty EA versions
    6) SW Racer – i usually dont play race games, but this was lots of fun and a bit of cursing at one particular level

    • February 17, 2018 at 7:14 pm
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      That’s a pretty awesome list of games. Damn now I really want to reinstall some of these old gems again. Btw which Racer level are you referring to? My guess is a) the swamp level or b) the cloud city level.

      • February 17, 2018 at 10:23 pm
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        i only remember that i always fall of an upper track to a lower and did not made it to the limit. But as i watched some YT videos, maybe i was just unaware of some nice shortcut that could be used

        • February 17, 2018 at 11:50 pm
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          Ah yes, the cloucity track 🙂

    • February 17, 2018 at 7:20 pm
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      EA has no interest in providing anything other than a delivery mechanism for microtransactions. They want what Bungie has/had with the Destiny franchise and a little better than a Korean pay to win MMO producer. They’re even doing this to their original sports franchises.

      All the hate and criticisms that have been flung at RJ and Disney for lack of respect and ruination of the Star Wars franchise is 100% applicable to these money-grubbing bastards.

      • February 17, 2018 at 7:43 pm
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        I disagree.

  • February 17, 2018 at 10:42 pm
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    I must admit I didn’t purchase. Apart from the solo campaign it wasn’t really offering me anything new, so I waited out for Kingdom Come Deliverance for a good old fashioned RPG. Pleased so far with my choice. Would hope that we get some good Star Wars titles in the future. I personally would ask the makers of Red Dead/Grand Auto to have a crack at a Star Wars game.

  • February 17, 2018 at 10:52 pm
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    That was their excuse. As far as the suits at EA are concerned, no one wants to play games like Red Redemption, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Divinity OS, Uncharted, Fallout…to name a few.

    EA suits are blocking it, because they can’t figure out how to push microtransactions in that format.

  • February 17, 2018 at 10:57 pm
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    This thread has been accidentally put to a pre-moderated state and hence 15 comments were hold for moderation (without reason) before they were posted. Perhaps you should be more patient for the efforts we are doing to keep this place civil and not react always the second something goes wrong. BTW, in these 15 comments there were no comment by you, so I am not sure what you’re complaining about. Just chill.

    • February 18, 2018 at 2:10 am
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      Given what I have witnessed going on lately, no, I won’t chill. I’ll have an opinion.

      Which I’m glad you allowed to be posted. If I don’t have a problem, I’ll happily be chill.

      Otherwise, I’ll state my piece.

      But thank you for at least listening Viral.

    • February 18, 2018 at 2:58 am
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      Thanks for posting this! I was scratching my head windering what I could have done wrong.

  • February 17, 2018 at 11:00 pm
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    lol… all Jedi versus Sith? I love the DW series but I’m not sure it’s the right fit for Star Wars. Their recent misstep with DW9 may knock their brand appeal for a bit. I’m sure they’ll bounce back with DW10.

  • February 17, 2018 at 11:50 pm
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    I used to do some work in Rhino as a hobby back in the early noughties. Would have loved to have been able to produce characters like this.

    • February 17, 2018 at 11:59 pm
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      Hmm rhino is nurbs based as far a I know which is rather difficult to start with. You might get better results with a better software. Also, I did have a 2D background which translated pretty well into 3D once I got the hang of it and you wouldn’t want to see my early work 😛 I’m still far, far away from being a top artist but you don’t get to be an artdirector over night. You know what they say. 10% talent, 20% knowledge and 70% exercise.

      • February 18, 2018 at 12:37 am
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        Those are impressive sculpts. Especially that second one, lots of hardish surfaces on that one. Must have been difficult to do in ZBrush. Do you have discord or someway to get in touch? Not right now but occasionally I need 3D modelers freelance work. Is that something you’d be willing to discuss should the need arise?

      • February 18, 2018 at 12:37 am
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        At best, I was a keen amateur! I mostly produced space ships. Created quite a decent Naboo cruiser once.

  • February 17, 2018 at 11:52 pm
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    Me again?

    • February 18, 2018 at 12:25 am
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      I just meant that I commented on a lot of your posts for this article.

  • February 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
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    I would very much like to see more Star Wars games. For a couple of years now I’ve wondered why EA hasn’t been cranking out more. They have given us 2 FPS games. Where are the open-world RPG, or Strategy games? The best part about previous Star Wars games was there were many different ones. My favorites were Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefront 2, and Empire at War. There is no excuse for EA not providing new games in the RPG, Strategy, and Single Player genres.

  • February 18, 2018 at 12:55 am
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    EA has the Respawn Entertainment Star Wars project in development…..which could very well be coming in fall 2019. That’s expected to be a story-driven single-player title…..but it’s also likely to have a huge multiplayer component as well.

    • February 18, 2018 at 8:47 pm
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      Even more likely to be cancelled at the last minute.

      • February 18, 2018 at 8:52 pm
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        Nope. Word is that the game is coming along VERY well. EA acquired Respawn in part because of this….and it’s partly why they shut down Visceral Games (due to progress being way too slow on Visceral’s Star Wars project).

        • February 18, 2018 at 8:53 pm
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          I’ve become cynical about the development cycles of SW games

          • February 18, 2018 at 8:57 pm
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            Understandable. Ultimately we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

  • February 18, 2018 at 2:13 am
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    Concept thing is fine. But people don’t say “Wow I love the concept and what they appeared to be going for!” They instead treat it like it was a 10/10 Legendarily reviewed game. But it was never finished. It may have been a gorgeous concept with failed game play. Much like the current Battlefront series.

    And don’t get me wrong; yeah I too want a great Star Wars game. We’re probably not going to get it from EA. I don’t like them, they suck. And DICE is the only developer at EA that I will still actively defend being a long time Battlefield fan and knowing that EA hasn’t completely destroyed them like every other development house they purchased in the past.

    But the BF series is obviously not what the fans want. I’ve enjoyed both games, but they’re still pretty sub-par. Fun, but sub-par.

    And you’re absolutely right. BF1 was rushed. And then 2 was too. BF2 is closer to where BF1 should have been after 4 years of development. As it were, both games were done in 2 years. And BF II is stuck with the design choices they made rushing 1.

    Good convo.

  • February 18, 2018 at 2:14 am
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    DICE has largely remained the same. Which makes them an anomaly at EA.

    Yeah, Bioware is dead. Can’t argue that.

    • February 18, 2018 at 3:04 am
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      Yeah my comment was really regarding the BF2 progression and microtransaction system. It’s been reported that DICE was told to just do it by EA, despite objections. There’s no denying that DICE put a crap ton of effort into making a beautiful looking game. Makes it even more frustrating.

  • February 18, 2018 at 2:56 am
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    I bought the game, though I admittedly don’t play it as much as Battlefront 2015 but thats also because I’ve been playing A LOT of BATTLEFIELD 1. Im waiting patiently to play more Star Wars games more in line with Dark Forces, or the Jedi Knight series or an Open World game like Fallout 4 or Skyrim would be ideal. The game that Visceral was working on was suppose to be more like that but is supposedly being re-worked. Still looking forward to more on that game.

  • February 18, 2018 at 3:13 am
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    “single-player titles are far from dead” Absolutely true, and I would add “fun, simple-but-pretty, all-in-one (without the need to buy things with real money), finishable titles are far from dead”

  • February 18, 2018 at 10:00 pm
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    I wouldn’t mind the canceled Uncharted-style one

  • February 18, 2018 at 11:49 pm
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    Thanks for asking. It was such a long time ago; Everything I did was stored on CD/DVD rom. I don’t think I have them any more.

  • February 19, 2018 at 1:20 am
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    yeah get out EA/DICE ! Enough of your casual cash-grabbing games !

  • February 19, 2018 at 5:57 am
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    Good riddance, I hope they don’t go to another cash grab route. Wish we could get the old Lucas Arts franchise going again

    • February 20, 2018 at 12:23 am
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      Exactly what I was thinking! I loved pretty much every LucasArts game I ever played growing up, even the non-Star Wars ones, but I got no joy out of playing Battlefront 2.

    • February 20, 2018 at 5:16 am
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      i would love some devs going for a gta-like SW but with jedi knight game for lightsaber fights but revamped with new tech. put cooperation multiplayer campaign to play jedi/padawan or sith/apprentice, and you have a HIT

  • February 19, 2018 at 1:05 pm
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    EA SW is something I think is undefendable. Not only because they fkced up the games, but because they don’t seem to be willing to release any…
    The sooner they get their hands of SW, the better.
    Three years and all we got was some crappy mobile games and Battlefronts. Where are the rest?
    The games were certiainly uncomparably better pre-Disney era. I mean they at least had a large variety of games, not just the lame Battlefield knock-off.
    Disney should’ve saved Lucasarts.

  • February 19, 2018 at 2:50 pm
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    Good. I still haven’t and don’t plan on buying Battlefront 2. I’m glad the community has voted with their wallets and shown a corporation that people won’t just go with something that screws them over just because you slap a Star Wars sticker on it.

  • February 19, 2018 at 5:23 pm
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    Rather then giving the whole license to another AAA companies like Ubisoft (Who will screw up just like EA) They should take a different approach similar to the Anthology films. If a company has an idea for a Star Wars game they pitch it, if Disney and LucasFilm approve of they can start development. This way small studios and AAA studios have the same chances. And a greater variety in games not just shooters and mobile games.

    • February 20, 2018 at 5:10 am
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      well said

  • February 19, 2018 at 11:28 pm
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    Me too

  • February 20, 2018 at 1:35 am
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    The Rogue games were better than SOTE

  • February 20, 2018 at 1:35 am
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    It’s called KOTOR

  • February 20, 2018 at 1:36 am
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    And on a single system…

  • February 20, 2018 at 1:37 am
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    Ugh, why

    • February 20, 2018 at 1:59 am
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      Koei Tecmo has done Warriors versions of different IPs before, and Star Wars is a perfect candidate.

      • February 20, 2018 at 2:50 pm
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        Those games are boring.

        • February 21, 2018 at 12:33 am
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          There’s actually more depth to those games outside of the surface once you play them yourself.

          • February 22, 2018 at 3:05 pm
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            I have played them myself. And I dislike them.

  • February 20, 2018 at 1:44 am
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    They paid their money

  • February 20, 2018 at 5:24 am
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    Late to the party here, but why not start with a remastered KOTOR?

    The “bones” would already be in place, I.e. character designs, story line, etc. Update the graphics and sell it for $60. I would buy it, and I’m sure a few million other people would too.

    Look at the success of the rereleased Skyrim. Better yet, the remastered Crash Bandicoot series was wildly successful from what I’ve read.

    KOTOR is good enough to be remastered, and old enough for SW fans to buy it for nostalgia, if nothing else.

    • February 22, 2018 at 2:37 am
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      You’re falling for a typical bias – because you’re interested in something, you think other people are too. Unfortunately in KOTOR’s case a true remaster isn’t cost-effective, as the target audience already has access to the game on multiple, current platforms for a few bucks, and hardcore RPG players are less focused on graphics fidelity.

      You also say “update the graphics” like that’s the easy part. KOTOR was already remastered once with higher resolution textures. To make the game competitive with current-gen games, you’re talking about rebuilding everything from scratch. That’s A LOT of time and resources. But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the fan project to rebuild the game in Unreal 4. It’s not nearly as simple as you seem to think it is, and projects like this are best left to fans anyway – http://www.apeirongame.com/

      When companies do remasters, it’s because they’ve done the math and know that it will make more money than it costs to update. With KOTOR, that’s not a foregone conclusion at all.

      • February 22, 2018 at 3:32 am
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        You seem to be more knowledgeable on the inner workings of what goes into a video game than me, so I’ll gladly concede to the points you’ve made.

        I certainly would like to see it done, so I do have some bias. However, it seems to be a popular opinion that spawns false rumors every few years that seem to create a decent amount of excitement (at least among Star Wars websites.)

        Since you seem to be more knowledgeable, how difficult would it be to make a game like KOTOR at least compatible with a current game console? (Serious question, not trying to be an ass)

        I definitely don’t think the process is easy, I just know that it’s been done before. Maybe not a complete graphics overhaul, but I’ll use Crash bandicoot as an example again for making an old game compatible with a new system.

        I’ve read about the fan KOTOR project before, and it definitely sounds and looks impressive. As someone who has never done a lot of computer gaming, I don’t even know (and I doubt) if I have the right kind of computer to operate a game like that to it’s full potential.

  • February 20, 2018 at 9:45 pm
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    pull it together man….cmon!

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