It's ironic and predictable that Electronic Arts' Star Wars exclusivity deal with Lucasfilm would end just as the publisher was starting to do fun things with the license. I don't mean that as a knock against 2017's Battlefront 2, but with a Star Wars skin or not, a mass combat military shooter hardly felt like the most original or exciting fantasy. But Fallen Order was a fun Star Wars adventure that felt right for the universe. It told a good story that reminded me a lot of the stories I'd dream of writing or the RPG campaigns I'd play. Squadrons took a giant step toward recapturing the heyday of LucasArts' X-Wing games, and while it still fell short of that mark… well, that mark was made by some of the greatest PC games of all time.
I’d love to see Relic do a Company of Heroes style small scale RTS in the Star Wars setting.
It only sort of counts because of their recent EA acquisition but I think Codemasters could do a really fun Podracing game.
It remains astonishing that EA had exclusive rights to one of the most valuable IPs in the world for the better part of a decade and only made four AAA games.
Luke Skywalker: But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!
Uncle Owen: You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done.
Goofy, there on Tattooine: Gawrsh
I would love to see a Cadence of Hyrule situation where a small indie team makes a good enough pitch that Lucasfilm Games gives them the keys. What does Fullbright’s Star Wars game look like?
Let Sucker Punch (or the For Honor team) make a Star Wars lightsaber dueling game.
I don’t know what else Lucasfilm has on offer besides Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but as far as Star Wars goes, I’m optimistic that the license being back with Lucasfilm will mean that we’ll get more Star Wars games than EA was willing/able to offer.
Seriously license it to anybody with a good pitch who’s made good games. If a proven studio wants to make a Star Wars game they should get a shot. Just want a wide variety. Cadence of Hyrule as somebody said up thread is a great example.
Flipside is I hope working on Star Wars doesn’t kill independent new IP stuff, especially from smaller devs. In my ideal world you do a good Star War and make money to fund whatever new thing your studio wants to do.
While this new wave of licensed game content is already starting to make me wary (James Bond, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter all getting big games), I’d love if in a post-New Trilogy world, Disney chilled a little on the canon and really let people do whatever. Like, give me Diaries of a Coruscant Janitor. Give me Reigns where you’re balancing the Force instead of your factions.
But in the realm of bigger studios getting to do their thing, I’m very boring and really just want Obsidian to make Kotor 3. If I could make a Gummi X-Wing and get a light-keyblade, I’d be happy too.
I’m of two minds on more exclusive projects like Marvel’s Spider-Man. On the one hand, I think exclusives are anti-consumer. On the other hand, if Microsoft is just going to write the check up front so Obsidian can make the game they want to make without having to worry about monetizing it (Marvel’s Avengers…hello), I think I can get over it.
I uhhhhh cant see Disney doing anything interesting with the licensing lol, everything I’ve heard about them and EA makes it sound like they were the problem there lmao
My understanding is that there were two major issues with Battlefront II:
Disney was always concerned with how they were going to make money.
Everything always had to go back to Lucasfilm for approval.
If this “Lucasfilm Games” group functions like the Marvel Games team, they embed with the development team directly which functionally eliminates the feedback turnaround time. The ROI thing is where I think these games are going to get into trouble.
Lucasarts/Lucasfilm have a history of being notoriously hands on with licensed properties, and I have had beverages with people who confirm the micromanagement headaches. It’d be nice to see them let some developers run wild, but I have doubts. Disney is weird. They let some extremely low quality stuff out in the world, but if something has a budget they seem to be pretty controlling too.
Take the flying bits from Squadrons, make the missions a bit more dynamic, the AI a little better, and bolster the ship selection by a few models.
Add an XCOM 2-like strategic layer in which you move your flagship around the galaxy, investigating stuff and doing missions, including ones that give you resources to use on repairing or upgrading your squadron’s ships.
If you’re feeling experimental give the pilots (randomized/dynamic?) personalities that interact with each other and influence their combat AI, like what Watch_Dogs 3 could have been.
