As most of you have heard, EA acquired exclusive rights to Star Wars. Which means that any game made with the Star Wars name on it must be Published by EA, but can be developed by a third party developer. (Duh Jove, get to the point already)
While EA is well...EA, I think this could be the franchise that turns EA's name around into a somewhat tolerable Publisher again. The following below is my Pros and Cons of this acquisition as well as EA's current state. The following is also just my opinion as well so keep an open mind please XD.
Pros:
- Battlefront 3 as we know it, is now alive much more than ever! One of the developers for EA is Dice. The company responsible for Battlefield (as well as Mirror's Edge in the past). YOU COULD NOT ASK FOR A BETTER DEVELOPER than Dice for Battlefront 3. Battlefront 3 on a Frostbite engine, most popular aspect of the previous 2 games being Multiplayer, the great air/space combat and ground combat, as well as being a marketable success? Dice HAS TO jump right into this because if they don't, I guarantee you Battlefront 3 will never see the light of day otherwise.
- Just recently, I was watching a TB video as he will talking about this, and what he pointed out was very interesting. Did you know that their is not a single M rated Star Wars game? I was very shocked by this realization and now very intrigued on how one of EA's developers is going to tackle this. For those that don't know, The Expanded Universe in Star Wars has a lot of lore that features many interesting dark and grimy stories. Star Wars 1313 seemed like it was going to be the first M rated Star Wars title, but with that pretty much dead, I'm curious about how one of the developers is going to tackle into this.
- Bioware. While their rep has taken a HUGE hit in the last year or two, their is still a lot of talent there and they can still clearly make good games. Say what you want about Mass Effect 3's ending (which is a freaking travesty I say!), but that game was still very good overall. Their experience with the Star Wars name is KOTOR and SWTOR. KOTOR being critically acclaimed as one of, if not the best Star Wars game of all time, SWTOR being...well they call it Tortanic for a reason. But while SWTOR wasn't that much of a success, it's not an awful game by any stretch of the means. So if SWTOR is the worst Star Wars game Bioware has made, then I'm more than willing to give Bioware a third try at it. Especially if it's KOTOR 3 and/or Jedi Outcast.
- When Lucas Arts went down, it was a shell of it's former self. They haven't made a good Star Wars game in ages and Disney wasn't going to anything with the name (besides the movies of course). So the fact that EA has decided to take a shot with the name themselves shows at the very least that they want to at least try to make something good out of it (as well as of course, hoping to make a whole lot of Milk out of this Cow).
- While EA is still known as the current Worst Company in America for two straight years, they have made some interesting news that seem to take steps in the right direction for core gamers. The firing of their CEO, announcing The Sims 4 being DRM free, etc. Their taking very slow baby steps but baby steps never the less into becoming a tolerable Publisher again. So maybe this acquisition is yet another step into that direction instead of the Evil EA at it again.
- Again, while EA might have the reputation to being the Evil Empire (see what I did there?) of the Gaming Industry, their also known to make/publish, worst case, decent games with best case being really good games. So at the very least, I can know that hopefully, while I will caution how they will go about into marketing their Star Wars games as well as fishy features implemented into them, that the games themselves will be pretty good and/or great.
Cons:
- Very DLC heavy and even more so now as of late. How many DLCs do they have in titles such as Battlefield for example? Or Sims 3!? Good god that game has the most expensive DLCs as well as having a shit ton of them! Their the worst when it comes to this type of business practice. I pray to the Sun that they don't pull this crap into most of the Star Wars games we will see from them. Than again, I can get a little too optimistic at times. :(
- Micro-Transactions...I hope for their sake that Dead Space 3 is the worst we have seen from them in this regard because if not...They won't a fucking nickel from me ever again as long they continue to pull that bull crap in single player titles like Dead Space 3. Hell, it's still stupid in Mass Effect 3's multiplayer. If Dice makes Battlefront 3 and EA forces them to add in micro-transactions for various weaponry, Jedi skills, space ships or what not, I will never forgive them for that alone!
- *Looks inside Kingdoms of Amular case* Online Pass in a single player game...really EA? I know that was a year before the CEO firing but please don't do this to future titles like a potential KOTOR 3, Jedi Outcast, Republic Commando, Battlefront 3, etc. I don't think I need to explain how wrong this is.
- Worst case coming from this is...EA decides to just milk the name and make generic FPS games and Kinect games with the Star Wars Name/paint on it...which sadly, is a possibility I will not rule out.
TL;DR Overall, I think as long as EA puts very capable developers to work with the Star Wars name (Dice, Bioware, etc.) and hopefully decide to finally release long waited titles like Battlefront 3, Republic Commando, KOTOR 3, Jedi Outcast, etc. This could be a really good thing. Because it's not Lucasarts was making anything good in the last...what, decade? Disney is only interested in doing the Movies side of Star Wars. So at least we know that Star Wars games (hey, good ones maybe!) are coming, and they have the means to make it a huge hit. It's how their going to pull it off is the question.