Cinelinx is reporting that they have heard rumours that Lucasfilm is looking at its options for Star Wars gaming after a disappointing start to their relationship with EA.
Electronic Arts snagged the exclusive license deal to create and publish Star Wars games all the way back in 2013. In the time since, however, EA has struggled with the property. The first game they announced (and released), Star Wars Battlefront, suffered backlash with its lack of single-player campaign; launching with such little content that many became bored quickly. Subsequent DLC packs added a lot of great content, but by the end, everyone was waiting to see what was next.
Battlefront II brought only more problems; despite making changes at the last minute, the launch was pretty rocky, and the whole debacle has brought a wave of attention down on “loot boxes” in gaming (with some Governments looking to crack down on the practice). EA’s latest financial statements have shown the impact with sales down and failing to meet expectations.
From what I’ve heard Lucasfilm is upset as well and looking for other options. I’ve had a couple sources reach out to me about the current state of Star Wars gaming. According to them, Disney/LFL higher ups pulled EA to the “principal’s office” to talk about what’s going wrong (which is what others have reported as well). Moreso, they’ve apparently reached out to both Ubisoft and Activision about developing Star Wars games.
I know what you’re thinking, because I had the same thoughts. EA has a contract for the games, exclusively. How could Disney get around that without breaching and causing more problems? I don’t know all the technical aspects of it, but supposedly there’s an addendum of some kind within the contract that would allow Disney to pull the license, or shop it around, if certain standards/conditions weren’t being met. This type of clause isn’t unheard of when dealing with big licenses (and what’s bigger than Star Wars?), and with all the problems and lack of games it doesn’t surprise me in the least that they’re looking elsewhere.
