EA Cancels Open World Star Wars Game

As a child the company EA conjured warm feelings in my cold nerd heart. I give credit to their EA sports games, which if you grew up playing madden as I did you just involuntarily flashed back to the PS2 era while reading that line. On top of well made sports simulations they produced their share of solid licensed properties such as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a game I remember quite fondly.

So in May of 2013 when it was announced that EA had reached a deal with Disney to exclusively produce Star Wars games I wasn’t worried. Sure it would mean a promising looking game like Star Wars 1313 was canceled but EA had Dice and BioWare under their control. The thought of a Battlefront game made by the team that brought us so many great Battlefield entries was tantalizing. If shooters weren’t your style then the potential of a Mass Effect style Star Wars RPG surely would have piqued your interest.

Things started out well enough, I recall being happy with the online only (save for a lackluster horde mode) Battlefront in 2015, a game I revisited many times to check out the beautifully rendered maps and DLCs. Coming straight from a showing of Rogue One to recreate the battle of Scarif to secure the Death Star plans with my friends. The addition of Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame to Visceral Games to work on a story driven original Star Wars game seemed a match made in heaven.

However things began to change in October of 2017 when Visceral Games was closed and Amy Hennig let go. The fate of her game was up in the air, per their comments on the cancelation it seemed EA wanted to have a game with an open world feel more akin to Destiny, a far cry from the narrative odyssey of the Uncharted series. So the project was moved to EA Vancouver which would use assets to create something new.

In November of that year the hits kept coming as the release of Star Wars Battlefront II was tarnished by the game’s reliance on as some have put it “predatory” loot box system. Eventually they were removed for a time but it broke the progression system of the game which relied on players spending their money on crates to acquire more weapons. It was to put it honestly a disaster.

Then just yesterday Kotaku’s Jason Scheirer reported that EA has canceled the open world Star Wars game being worked on in Vancouver. Things are very much uncertain when it comes to the future of Star Wars Games with EA. Many fans online are using this cancelation as a final straw of sorts. Pleading with Disney to take the exclusive license away. Personally I do believe there are still interesting stories that can be told in the Galaxy Far Far Away, however the seeming over emphasis on monetization which puts narrative as an afterthought isn’t the path that leads to success. It will of course be interesting to see how where this goes and we’ll keep you updated as more news comes out.

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