In a bizarre turn of events, publisher Electronic Arts hasonce again pulledanotherStar Warsproject from development – this time citing concerns that the timetable for their current project would take too long. And while they are reportedly “fully committed” to creating a game in theStar Warsuniverse, co-developer ofRogue Onehas a lot more hesitation about EA’s capabilities.
To create a bit of a backdrop, let’s go over the timeline of events. Following adisastrous PR launchforStar Wars Battlefront II, EA let go ofUncharted’sAmy Hennig and canceledherStar Warsproject with Visceral Games. Theassets were then rolled overto EA Vancouver to make a more open-world title… a game that wasjust last week put into an indefinite hiatusas they move to a newStar Warsproject. Yikes.
With all of that in the past,Rogue One’s co-developer Gary Whitta joined Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller to discuss his take on the cancellation of EA Vancouver’s “Project Orca.” Whitta as a commentator draws from two different knowledge pools. On one end, he was the scriptwriter for a principalStar Warsfilm, working hand-in-hand with Disney and executives well-versed in the series. On another end, Whitta also understands the gaming industry, writing for publication ACE (before it shuttered) and helping found PC Gamer.
So when asked about what Whitta thought about the situation, he didn’t hold any punches. After spending nearly three whole minutes with his head in his hands.
“The deal was signed in 2013, it was a 10-year deal. We’re pretty much just over halfway through the deal at this point. … So let’s imagine I’m Bob Iger, I’m the head of Disney and I call in the EA guys. … Let’s check in and see how you guys have been doing. … We put out twoBattlefrontgames, one of which didn’t have a story at all, both of which were kind of mediocre, and one of which ended up being amajormajor embarrassment because of the microtransaction fiasco. Not just to EA, but to Disney and theStar Warsbrand.
You had a game that was a linearUnchartedtypeStar Warsexperience game which was being developed by the writer of theUnchartedgames and probably the best narrative designer in the business. It looked phenomenal. Canceled that. Rolled all your assets into this new, bigger, more ambitious EA Vancouver open-world game. … Canceled that. Okay, what else… nothing. That’s what we’ve done in five years.”
Outside of a brutal (yet accurate) play-by-play of the events, Whitta underscored it with some choice words. He called EA’s usage of theStar Warslicense as “catastrophically mismanaged” and an “embarrassment,” given that the property is crown jewel among other IPs.
When asked if there is any chance the property will be renewed, Whitta states that he thinks “neither party really wants that.”
While Kinda Funny is very much an informal forum to rant and rave about these sort of industry events, this is bold language from Whitta and surely the most hostile towards EA of anyone tied to aStar Warsname. While it isn’t a definite indication on how Disney themselves are treating the situation, this is a good baseline on how others with their hands on the franchise are viewing the events.
In the meantime, we are going to twiddling our thumbs while we wait for the next major consoleStar Warsrelease, with a rumored deadline of 2020. Meanwhile, if you haven’t checked outRogue One, feel free tograb a copy on Amazon. If you want to watch the interview in full, check out the video below:
