The Force was strong this time

 

This week saw some absolutely huge news for the world of gaming!

Lucasarts, i.e. Disney released a statement that they are not renewing their Star Wars exclusivity license with EA in 2023!

This means that in two years time, anyone can make a Star Wars game. Well, technically anyone. It is also a good idea to point out that this doesn't mean EA won't be making any Star Wars games in the future. They can if they want to, just like the other studios.

This piece of news was met with joy from all corners of the internet, as fans have been disappointed with EA to say the least. In all the years they have held the license, EA has released only four Star Wars games; Battlefront, Battlefront 2, Jedi Fallen Order and Squadrons.

The first two games do have their fans, but it was Battlefront 2 that almost made Star Wars synonymous with gambling for children, prompting Disney to call EA and ask what the hell they were doing. It was also Battlefront 2 that really kicked off governments across the world taking a look at lootboxes and micro-transactions. So, not exactly beloved titles.

Jedi Fallen Order is by most accounts a really good game, holding a Very Positive ranking on Steam.

Likewise, Squadrons has a Very Positive rating, but it sort of flew under the radar, and I haven't heard very many people talking about it. Maybe that's on me though.

That's it. That is all EA has done with one of the biggest, if not the biggest IP in the world. Four measly games, and nothing more. This is in large part due to EA not really even wanting the license as they can't control it.

When you make a Star Wars game, you follow the rules and lore set down by Lucasarts, or you are in a world of hurt. The House of Mouse has some very mean lawyers. This will hold true going forward as they are keen to make sure all future games stick to the canon.

So what does this mean going forward? As always time will tell, but two games have already been announced.

Massive, the studio behind The Division 2 has announced an open world Star Wars game to be published under Ubisoft, and Machinehead the people behind the new Wolfenstein games is making an Indiana Jones game under Bethesda Game Studios.

Considering how long it takes to make games, they should be good to go just as the timer ticks down on the license going free.

Ultimately this has to be a good thing. There are so many cool things that can be made within Star Wars and now they can finally be made. RPG's, racing games, strategy games, action games, you name it.

Maybe we can finally get a new Jedi Knight game after seventeen years! Maybe some bounty hunting or smuggling games. Who knows?

I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan out there, but this announcement really made me happy. As always I maintain that cautious optimism is the way to go, but I look forward to seeing what is going to happen.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, be safe and have a great week!

Unfair Design

Hello and welcome back to Eccentric Spheres.

Today I have to keep it a bit on the short side. I caught a nasty little flu last week, and the bastard is still kicking my ass all over the place.

Anyway, I ran across this video called “Devs Play”, over at DoubleFineProd's channel on Youtube. If you go to about the 18 minute mark, the developer of the old Lion King console game talks about how they were ordered by Disney to make the early game really hard to play.

The reason for this is, or rather was, the rental market. Back in the day when rentals were the big thing, the movie industry got a slice of every rented movie, but no one got anything for rented games. So the clever chaps over at Disney figured out that if you put in a huge spike in difficulty around level two, renters would get frustrated and go out and buy the game, in order to finish it.

Now, my brother and I used to rent a console and some games every now and then. Usually the SNES, but even the old NES once or twice, and I remember how this actually was a thing. In the Aladdin game, in order to escape the Cave of Wonders, you have to ride the magic carpet while lava chunks fly at you at high speeds. It was insanely hard to try to remember the pattern, and I suspect this artificial difficulty spike was the reason.

If this strategy actually worked or not, I can't say. I doubt anyone can, but for us it didn't work. Seeing as we rented the console as well, there was no way we would ever buy the game anyway. If it was too hard, we would just shrug and put it down in order to play something else.

The video is pretty interesting, so check it out.

I'm off to do some more coughing and sneezing, but I'll see you next time. Until then, have a great week!

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kILeyo1iv0A&feature=youtu.be&t=1085