EA Is the Game Company Disney Was Looking For 254
An anonymous reader writes "Electronic Arts announced today it has landed an exclusive multi-year agreement to develop and publish games based on Lucasfilms' Star Wars universe. EA said the it will create and publish Star Wars games for a 'core gaming audience' across 'all popular platforms' and genres. The EA studios creating those 'core' Star Wars games are Battlefield developer DICE, Dead Space developer Visceral Games and Mass Effect house BioWare."
Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
EA promises to do for Lucas Arts what Disney pledges to do for Lucasfilm.
This is following the lead established by McDonalds - and what they've done for beef.
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Re:Great... (Score:5, Interesting)
Same here. For me, if it's not on steam it doesn't exist. And since EA isn't on steam... well... it's as if hundreds of games screamed out in isolation and were suddenly silenced.
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For me, if it's not Cross Platform (Win,Mac,Nix) then it's useless. Seriously, there isn't any reason NOT to have Cross Platform, more money is better than limited money from a single Platform that may or may not continue to exist in a few years, since XNA and DirectX is pretty much dead now, not to mention limited to a single Platform whereas OpenGL is available to all. Bottom line, there is more money to be made by being Cross Platform; It's also my understanding that a certain company actually pays Devs
Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't have problems with DRM per se. I do have problems with DRM when it becomes disruptive. Steam isn't disruptive. Sometimes there are glitches in their system, but occurrences are few and far between nowadays, I can't really remember the last time I have had a problem. It allows people to install their games on an unlimited number of computers regardless of os. Game updates are reliable and unobtrusive. They give the little guy massive help by making sure indie games get as good exposure as the triple a titles. Not to mention the fact that they always have something on sale.
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The only games I buy with DRM are ones that are on sale for ridiculously low prices (such as $5 or less). I refuse to pay full price for something I don't own.
Ditto
And why do the online and offline shops insist on cluttering up my shelves with material rubbish anyway, since no-one else can use it, they might as well just email me a code for my rental.
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Provided you're willing to eat whatever shit Valve decides to throw into the TOS. If not, well, kiss "your" games, and your cash, goodbye.
It's only "non-disruptive" if you're already suffering the same corporate Stockholm Syndrome as the Blizzard and EA fans, just saluting a different flag.
Re: Great... (Score:2)
On a 4,3GHz quad core, with 32GB mem, how is it a problem that Steam runs in the background? It's not as if the games are 64bit and use most of the mem anyway.
I can appreciate that bloat sucks, but that is hardly a problem for modern machines (say made in the last 4 years).
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And my name is Nobody.
My over 4, soon 5 years old rig was a Q9550 with 8GB mem. It didn't pose a problem there neither.
And before that I had a E6400 (upgraded to Q6600) with 4GB of mem, still no probs.
Before that, OK, Steam used a notable portion of your system resources.
But if you're gaming on a 8+ years old rig, maybe PC gaming ain't your thang?
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So do I. And since I enjoy causing problems for myself, I game on a native resolution of 2560x1440.
I seldom get those problems, and if I do, it's even rarer that Steam is the one causing them.
It's not like it's a prerequisite that games need the Source engine to work on steam now is it?
Multiplayer through steam is by far the best solution out there. If you know of any conistently better solution, I'd like to hear about it.
And if you want to enjoy "steam free" singleplayer, go offline.
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I forgot to answer the claim of "...and an internet connection, even for single player".
That is simply not true. There is offline mode. It works. And it can be enabled _after_ you lose connection, albeit it's a bit of a hassle then.
As with most DRM services, you do have to log in every once in a while to update the info.
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How so?
Are you claiming you have _no_ internet connection? WTF do you use Steam/digital distribution for then in the first place?
It is still not "always online" SP.
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Not many released for the PC? Are you a recent sufferer of blunt force trauma to the head? I'm seriously concerned.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
If all DRM were implemented the way it is implemented with Steam, then we wouldn't be having such heated arguments about DRM.
Re: Great... (Score:2)
I second that.
Been a Steam user for going on 9 years. With the amounts of difficulties I've had, which is to say hardly any, compared to what I gain from the platform, I have no qualms recommending it.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
EA promises to do for Lucas Arts what Disney pledges to do for Lucasfilm
You hear any Marvel Comics fan complaining about Disney? Didn't think so.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, to be honest Disney will be hard pressed to mangle the Star Wars franchise any more than George Lucas did.
Re:Great... (Score:5, Funny)
Presumably that's why they hired EA.
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You hear any Marvel Comics fan complaining about Disney?
Disney came fairly late to the "Marvel Cinematic Universe" franchise, and even then all they are is a distributor...Paramount and Marvel are the creative and monetary forces behind the franchise.
My guess is that since Disney was the only studio that wasn't cashing in on superhero movies, they found a way to make some money off the genre.
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Not yet.
Marvel isn't nearly as integrated into the Disney culture (and doesn't integrate nearly as well) as Pixar or Lucasfilm, whose content matter can be described as wholesome, and if not then sanitized. On the other hand, Marvel's stories deal with darker, more complex, and more adult issues. These are issues that Disney is not accustomed to working with.
Marvel is the lone adult in a room full of infantile children. In fact, this may actually be a fair description of the relationship between Marvel's cu
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Marvel's stories deal with darker, more complex, and more adult issues. These are issues that Disney is not accustomed to working with.
Miramax was part of Disney for 17 years. You have heard of them, right?
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Yup. Pretty much anything this shithole has to say is useless.
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Free? .... "misery And Force choke? Really, Free?! I think you'll have to pay EA for these as DLC on first day. And chances are, the game won't run without misery.
Sooner or later, you'll have to pay to have a player that walks and runs - $1.99 each.
I haven't played the online Starwars mmporg, but the original Bioware Knights of Old Republic I & II (save for a few annoying characters ... which seems the norm for the SW universe .... ) were among the best games I've ever played. Now EA owns Bioware, which
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Bioware still makes great games, despite EA owning them.
They've spent pretty much the last DECADE making two games -- Mass Effect and Dragon Age -- both of which were, in a word, awesome. [Some argument can be made about the ending of ME3 being weak, but it doesn't ruin a great franchise.]
Before that they did such duds as Neverwinter Nights and KOTOR.
EA or not, I'll eat whatever Bioware is serving with a smile.
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Now all EA games will come with free misery AND a Force Choke...
...only if you preorder at Gamestop
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Really? First post wasn't Vader's "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"?
Battlefield: Star Wars (Score:3, Interesting)
Make it happen.
Re:Battlefield: Star Wars (Score:5, Insightful)
Make it happen.
You've never played Battlefront?
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It always amazes me how many people have no idea either A) The game exists or if they have heard of it then B) That its basically Battlefield, star wars style.
That game was so much fun. WTB Battlefront 3, with AT-ATs.
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Of course I played Battlefront. I guess I should have specified: Battlefield on Frostbite 3: Star Wars.
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As sheep we buy what's given us and don't complain about what's taken away;
making our own maps, mods, or even having control over our own servers.
Blackmonkeys.de made a Star War mod for Call of Duty 4 and it's a lot of fun.
http://www.moddb.com/mods/star-wars-mod-galactic-warfare [moddb.com]
You just can't do that anymore.
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As for Battlefront's Star wars even the player comments say what the OP does.
"For the love of GOD!! Put this on Dice's Frostbite 3 engine and its gaming orgasm!
Hoth on FB3 would be mind blowing! 64 players, walkers and speeders......passes out....."
"Now that EA has the reigns.....I'm sorry if the idea of the BATTLEFIELD 4 (or even 3)
Frostbite Engine coupled with STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT doesn't make you drool....
You are truly dead inside as a gamer."
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/06/star-wars-battlefront-3- [joystiq.com]
Lando Reaction (Score:5, Funny)
This deal is getting worse all the time.
Well, they needed an evil empire... (Score:5, Funny)
And with Electronic Arts, I guess they found one.
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I think that's a bit too much to say. At least the Empire learned from its mistakes and didn't add a spectacular design flaw to the second Death Star. EA just seems to enjoy piling on design flaws and not fixing stuff.
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Presumably a decision made to take advantage of the local cheap ewok labour. A lesson in outsourcing for us all.
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No, but we're discussing the second Death Star and the shield generator around it, not the Battle of Hoth.
The shield generator on Hoth, incidentally, protected the planet from orbital planetary bombardment. It did what it was supposed to do, but could not stop ground troops from coming down to the surface and destroy it.
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I feel obliged to point out that the shield in question was intended to protect it while it was under construction, not while it was in use. Also, to reach that shield they needed authorization which may have included letting them through the local planetary shields.
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I have to say, the headline honestly surprised me. A franchise with as much potential as Star Wars, and yet it's like they went with the lowest bidder.
Or do they not have google at Disney? Virtually the entire first page of results for "EA Reputation" slams them, or is full of people very blatantly trying to work around the accepted fact that EA has a god-awful reputation.
I can find no words. Really, honestly, it is shocking. It's like the first thought was, "Let's get some businesses in here", and then
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Mediocrity (Score:5, Insightful)
And so the lineage of mostly-forgettable Star Wars games continues unabated...
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I don't know, Bioware made KOTOR and that was one of the better Star Wars games ever made. Despite what people think some of the EA studios still have a bit of creativity left. (Then again after trying to play Dragon Age it may be fading fast...)
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I don't know, Bioware made KOTOR and that was one of the better Star Wars games ever made.
Yes, but they made that *before* being bought out by EA. After being bought out, they made Star Wars The Old Republic (aka WoW, with lightsabers, but somehow still lame).
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Don't know, I gave up on MMORPGs a long time ago (I think Ultima Online was my first and last, actually ;)
If that's the direction they want to go, ugh. But they also made the Mass Effect series and I was pretty happy with that overall (given it's basically the same engine as KOTOR, you can see where my game tastes lie... still waiting for a Jade Empire sequel...)
Merchandising within merchandising (Score:5, Funny)
I can see the tie-ins now... Star Wars Sims: Make your Ewok's spend less time brushing their teeth with Crest!
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An anthropomorphic tie-fighter movie
The full Episode 4 using Disney iconic characters with the witch from Sleeping Beauty as Darth Vader
Star Wars Social - beg your friends to help you outfit your own Jedi college that randomly gets murdered by a rogue Jedi turning to the dark side.
Re:Merchandising within merchandising (Score:5, Informative)
The full Episode 4 using Disney iconic characters with the witch from Sleeping Beauty as Darth Vader
Her name is Maleficent, which is a pretty cool villain name to know.
Is Disney Blind? (Score:3)
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Why go with a company who has been making the news for broken games and abrasive customer service? Are executives at Disney really ok with taking such a big risk on such a valuable property?
maybe the deal is such that disney makes money no matter what.
the only game company stupid enough - and with enough cash going around(even if they're not making cash well) would be EA.
I'm not holding my breath for another TIE fighter classic though.....
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Why go with a company who has been making the news for broken games and abrasive customer service?
Because EA is still making more money than $RANDOMDEITY, because the average gamer doesn't really give a shit and will happily buy Medal of Duty: Call of Honor 15: Infinite Titanium Xtreme as soon as it hits the shelves after a period of no beta testing.
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Why go with a company who has been making the news for broken games and abrasive customer service? Are executives at Disney really ok with taking such a big risk on such a valuable property?
There is no risk.
2,100 rants posted to Amazon.com hasn't broken SimCity's hold on the top ten bestseller lists in PC games.
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That's basically what LucasArts had been doing, and they ended up producing crap or just sitting on the IP.
People have wanted new Tie FIghter, Grim Fandango, etc... games but Lucas would never license out the IP to them to develop the games.
EA DRM (Score:4, Funny)
EA's DRM will now stand for Darkside Rights Management
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EA's DRM will now stand for Darkside Rights Management
I would have thought a Stargate tie in would have been more appropriate.... At least then they could tell people about the power of Origin.
evil + evil = (Score:4, Insightful)
Profit!
Time to buy some stock!
Ongoing boycott (Score:2)
Since EA said it would require Simcity to be always on (Yeah, I predicted correctly that shit would hit the fan at launch just like Diablo 3) I started boycotting EA. Luckily I`ll always have the back catalog of awesome Star War games. Farewell Star Wars games, may the force be with you. And I`m not talking about Starforce.
Star Force (Score:2)
Farewell Star Wars games, may the force be with you. And I`m not talking about Starforce.
I don't get it. What does a vertical shooter by Tecmo [wikipedia.org] have to do with Star Wars or EA?
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I don't get it. What does a vertical shooter by Tecmo [wikipedia.org] have to do with Star Wars or EA?
Wrong Starforce. He meant the one that destroys your CD drive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarForce [wikipedia.org]
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Battlefield 2142 was the last game i purchased from them, because i liked BF1942, and BF2 a lot. I bought those titles BECAUSE of the modding community.
By the time BF3 came along, i started boycotting EA for their abusive DRM. Incidentally, about that time dice removed the cd check from the older BF titles.
I'd rather play the older titles than touch BF3. Same with Simcity, v4 is good and with mods its even better.
Valve encourage mods while EA forbids them. Guess where my purchases go? EA is finished for me.
The death of Lucas Arts wasn't painful enough... (Score:3)
Because the death of Lucas Arts wasn't painful enough for Star Wars fans, we can now look forward to all future Star Wars games being in the Origin-only, Rootkit-DRM enabled, online-at-all-times failboat that is EA's formula. Or is my lack of faith disturbing?
two wrongs dont make a right (Score:2)
Always two there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice.
But which is EA, the master or the apprentice
Re:two wrongs dont make a right (Score:4)
Apprentice. Disney was the primary advocate and beneficiary of the Sonny Bono Act.
Bad Call Disney (Score:2)
Don't the derps in charge of making these arrangements keep up on things. You just signed a deal with a company where just a few weeks back, gamers were practically dancing in the streets over their financial woes due to EA's douchebaggery.
Are you sure you want to go through with this foolishness?
xwing? (Score:2, Interesting)
Say goodbye to modding any star wars games, and hello to paying through the nose for DLC.
Oh well. I just hope they re-make X-Wing.
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Losing optimism on Disney and Star Wars... (Score:5, Insightful)
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> J.J. Abrams directing?
Expect plenty of superfluous lens flare (thank you pointless CGI!) even in dark scenes.
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Don't forget they have already said they want to release a new Star Wars movie every year. Got a feeling it'll be the Call of Duty for movies.
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I like the guy too, didn't even mind the end of Lost or his ridiculous love for CGI lens flare. But having him direct both star wars and star trek is just wrong - and I don't even have a dog in the star wars/trek fight, still feels bad. It is time for a new set of mythos all around.
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...It is time for a new set of mythos all around.
Starship Troopers? 8-)
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Who cares? (Score:5, Interesting)
Who cares? This franchise is way past its sell-by date.
Looking forward to the new Honor Harrington movie. [davidweber.net]
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It's dead. (Score:2)
Lucas's legacy that is.
One can argue that it died with the making of episodes 1-3 and George Lucas' monetization push of the past ten or so years, but I think this is the last nail in the coffin. All that's left is the dissolution of ILM, and that will sound like dirt hitting wood.
How to ruin a good thing: sell it to Disney. I don't expect quality offerings from Pixar anymore either, especially after the atrocity that was Brave.
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EA's fumble with Scrabble -- Star Wars (Score:2)
Lol (Score:2)
lol
That is all.
Really.
Mmmm (Score:2)
makes me want to call and ask to drop disney chann (Score:2)
makes me want to call and ask to drop disney channel and maybe ESPN.
X-Wing or TIE Fighter game, please (Score:4, Insightful)
Lens flare ^ 2 (Score:3)
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Yet people still complain that 3D movies are too dark because of having to wear the Polaroids!
EA is the game company (Score:5, Insightful)
the day star wars gaming died (Score:2)
It's okay guys (Score:2)
There hasn't been a good game out of Lucas Arts in years. SWTOR was a crapfest and nothing else came from them in recent memory that was remotely good. EA will create more craptastic star wars tie ins while watering down the brand and it will be like star trek games, they always come close but never really do it right.
Oh Well (Score:2)
Guaranteeing that all Star Wars (Score:2)
For the foreseeable future will be absolute crap.
I can hear the Wilhelm Scream (Score:2)
Torn... (Score:2)
Did EA decide they were innovating too much already and wanted to go for a beaten-up franchise?
Did they felt envious of the one franchise that had more sequels than Madden?
It's GOB (Score:2)
Re: Sim DarthMicky (Score:2)
Like George Lucas was a saint
He created the whole marketing toys and crap with a movie concept
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Despite the common mantra here, EA still has quite a bit of money, and is selling record numbers of their main franchise games.