After Disney took control of the Star Wars brand, Electronic Arts managed to snag the license to make exclusive games. They recently explained what it is that their various subsidiaries have in common when it comes to making the games.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz during the setting up of their press conference during this past year's GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, Electronic Arts executive vice president, Patrick Söderlund explained exactly what it is that drives interests in their Star Wars titles currently baking in the developmental oven, saying...
Anyone that works on it, they're so happy. That's a very important aspect. If they're happy, if they're motivated, if they're thoroughly enjoying what they do, better products will come out.
Söderlund rolls out very cookie-cutter responses for most of the questions, many of which center around EA's development ecosystem and how they utilize the Frostbite engine to power many of their upcoming games. We know that EA is working on a new unnamed Star Wars game, as they've been very vocal that it's coming.
Amy Hennig and Jade Raymond are heading up the Visceral Games title, with many gamers hoping that Hennig will bring her Uncharted charm to the sci-fi universe set in a galaxy far, far away. Up until now most of the recent story-oriented games set within the Star Wars universe have been handled by Bioware and their Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. There were also the other two LucasArts games, Star Wars: Force Unleashed and Star Wars: Force Unleashed II, but they weren't the most well-received games on the market.
With Jade Raymond from Assassin's Creed fame and Amy Hennig from Uncharted fame collaborating on the new title, hopefully it will breathe some new life into the single-player, story-oriented Star Wars fanfare.
There were also a lot of mixed critical responses from gamers when it came to DICE's gorgeous but shallow Star Wars: Battlefront. The fact that EA decided not to include content from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens still has gamers baffled about the decision, one that was waved away because EA claimed that they didn't want to mess around with the canon. There's also an upcoming VR title that works as a spin-off from DICE's Star Wars: Battlefront called Star Wars: Battlefront: X-Wing VR Missions. However, that seems like a bit of a hold-me-off game than an actual, noteworthy entry in the ongoing space saga.
Given that we don't actually hear much from the developers working on these games, we can't do much but take Söderlund's word for it that they're happy working on the titles and that it all works well with Electronic Arts' current development ecosystem.
GamesIndustry.biz tries to feed Söderlund a question about basing content around the upcoming Star Wars: Rogue One but EA's VP wisely seems to dodge out of the way and redirect the question around Frosbite and Battlefield, FIFA and Madden. So it's unlikely we'll find out right now if there are any plans to incorporate Star Wars: Rogue One content into any of the upcoming titles, but at least we know the developers are happy working on these games no matter what.
