The New York Times has a new article out detailing how Disney and EA hopes to reboot the video game segment of the Star Wars Universe.
This isn’t a reboot strictly in the sense of the canon. Disney believes prior games have been disappointments, and hope to please fans better with the new generation of games, and of course, profit highly from it. Electronic Arts has revealed they expect to sell nine to ten million copies of the first such game to be released, Star Wars Battlefront. Some analysts believe that EA is even lowballing these estimates.
For Disney, they are not hoping to merely find the games profitable for their own sake, but as part of a broader plan to realize the potential of the IP, justifying its $ 4 billion purchase to stakeholders.
Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media co-chairman James Pitaro referred to good pressure to ‘nail the Star Wars gaming experience’. Disney made bold and controversial moves in this direction, firing both most of Disney’s gaming division in 2013, after they laid off the remaining staff of LucasFilm Games upon acquisition. Disney Infinity’s success has proven Pitaro made the right call, but Star Wars Battlefront’s success would solidify his reputation.
Electronic Arts’ reputation is on the line as well, because fans remember what happened with specific Star Wars game before Disney: Star Wars: The Old Republic.The Old Republic turned out to be a huge flop, after going over budget and suffering numerous delays.
EA and Disney wants us to believe things are different, especially since Star Wars’ original caretaker, George Lucas, is no longer keeping game developers at arms’ length and asserting control over the IP. DICE has already shown how much access they were given to the Star Wars’ archives, and talked at length about how much freedom they were given to make Star Wars Battlefront.
Star Wars Battlefront will be releasing on November 17, 2015, in North America and November 20, 2015, in the UK for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Are you upbeat about Star Wars Battlefront and future Star Wars games? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
