It's not a surprise that EA hasn't managed its exclusive rights to the Star Wars franchise well this generation. While the original Xbox and Xbox 360 saw a tremendous amount of Star Wars content, EA has only managed to release the mediocre Star Wars Battlefront games which haven't been well-received by critics or gamers. Star Wars Battlefront II featured egregious pay-to-win microtransactions which caused various governments to crack down on the practice. However, that's not all. Recently, a troubling report emerged which said that EA wasn't allowing BioWare to make any more Knights of the Old Republic games.
According to Kotaku's Jason Schreier (via Den of Geek), BioWare has repeatedly asked EA for permission to make a new Knights of the Old Republic game, but the executives at the parent company keep on denying that request. As with any such rumor, treat it with a grain of salt, but from what we've seen in recent months, there may be some truth to this.
Many months ago, EA closed Visceral Games. The team was working on a linear Star Wars game that Star Wars writer Gary Whitta said would've been the franchise's Uncharted. A few days ago, EA cancelled the open-world Star Wars game at EA Vancouver — a title which was seen as an expansion of the Visceral Star Wars project — in favor of a small-scale title which could launch early. Instead of delivering a game that would've lived up to the legacy of the franchise, the company is content with releasing smaller titles in order to increase revenue.
Right now, it seems like there are only two single-player Star Wars games in development at EA. Respawn is working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and EA Vancouver just started work on a smaller title. DICE may be developing Star Wars Battlefront III, but given the underwhelming reception of the past two, it's probably not the title gamers and critics want.
What do you think of this whole saga — or fiasco — whatever you want to call it? Let us know.
