Alright, everybody is already aware of the fiasco that happened last year in November. With all stories that cover surrounding the predatory practices of publishers with microtransactions and the gambling aspects of loot boxes, the Force in our planet is out of balance.
Ever since the reboot of the Battlefront franchise, people hated Electronic Arts (EA) decision to narrow the players down to 40 and trimmed the game’s content through DLC, unlike its predecessors, both developed by Pandemic Studios (a great studio, actually) that supported 64 players and was 100% complete. I’m a big fan of Star Wars and also its games (not all of them, but you know which ones are definitely worth playing), and when the reboot of Star Wars Battlefront was teased. Boom, my voice would even reach the outer rims from where I’m sitting when I shouted.
Then here comes, Star Wars Battlefront II. The hope for redemption of DICE and EA to make everything right. They followed what Respawn Entertainment did with Titanfall 2 where they ditched paid downloadable contents, however, the inclusion of microtransactions (as a replacement for paid DLCs) that gated its progression system was far worse than even I could imagine. Battlefront II was supposed to be the chosen one, it was expected to prove its worth not leave it in darkness. It featured a full-length single-player shooter (the narrative was great, but it was still technically a huge tutorial) and upcoming DLCs were free! But it was unfortunately marked as a “pay-to-win” game, which I think was the proper term to use but overly exaggerated.
Seriously, I’m a die-hard fan but not to a point that I would just let publishers and developers ruin what could have been a great Star Wars game.
The news is already circulating that EA might lose the Star Wars license to develop the sci-fi fantasy franchise. And according to Cinelinx, Disney is looking into two, still, major publishers: Ubisoft and Activision. Now, I know what all of you are thinking. Why them? There are other game developers or publishers that would certainly do justice to the Star Wars IP like CD Projekt RED – look at The Witcher 3 – or Bethesda – look at Wolfenstein and DOOM. Bethesda can do a lot better especially with single-player experiences – it can be RPGs (Bethesda Game Studios and Arkane Studios) and shooters (MachineGames and id Software), a big possibility of a Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic remake (even Star Wars Republic Commando!), who doesn’t want that? But, looking at Disney’s business perspective, they would rather have people play games that have a solid multiplayer foundation that can make a decent single-player experience. It’s pretty clear that multiplayer is one big factor why they will either go for Ubisoft and Activision.
Still, Cinelinx does not have any concrete evidence that would support what their writer cited. But, if it were true, then certainly, I will still have the same reaction to this absurd move by Disney.
Don’t get me wrong, both Ubisoft and Activision are fit and definitely qualified to do Star Wars games, but with the former still cycling through Season Passes and Deluxe Editions and the latter still doing loot boxes and possibly do a yearly Star Wars game like what they do with Call of Duty, I think Disney shouldn’t Force lift the license and pass it to any of these two publishers. We don’t want our Star Wars game to be just another Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed. We need a new kind of experience that would lead the Star Wars expanded universe to new heights.
I would rather wish that Disney would bring back LucasArts and do their games in-house than licensing the Star Wars IP to another game publisher that would exploit predatory practices and gambling mechanics which would ruin the Star Wars brand itself.
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