Old Star Wars games appear on Origin

[RileyTheFox]

In recent days, many old games of the Star Wars franchise appeared for sale on EA's games platform, Origin. This is quite surprising considering the most iconic Star Wars game on there, Star Wars Battlefront II (not the 2017 version) was released in 2005. The developers of the game, Pandemic Studios, ceased operations in 2009 shortly after being bought out by EA. There are no stories on this as I've yet seen but I thought this might be interesting.

 

Battlefront II is currently on sale for £2.87. Much cheaper than Steam's offering of around £7.

 

There's two things that could possibly happen with the old games being on Origin. In Battlefront II's specific case, online mode may be brought back fully after the servers were shut down in 2014. The servers did open back up in a small effort at the start of this year, however it had many bugs and the main menus are not designed for 16:9 displays. Considering EA bought Pandemic Studios, they would have all rights and possibly original game files to the original Battlefront II and may update the game to support newer technologies and also enable online mode once more. 

 

The other thing (and most likely thing) that might be happening is that EA is just trying to make an attempt at getting people to buy the old games for as cheap as possible to get more money. If this is the case, I don't see it being too successful as most people who played the games before either had it on disc or bought it on Steam years later.

 

If EA actually started to bring functionality back to the game, I would definitely buy the game for the insanely cheap price just to play it again, as I can only imagine they will push the updates to Origin to encourage people to buy it on their platforms again. Online play is only playable if you download a modded exe file that points the address to the online servers to a custom hosted one. This is obviously something many people don't know exists/how to do so the player numbers are ludicrously small. If official online play was brought back, it may make people want to buy it for the nostalgic feels of the old game.

 

Picture of old Star Wars games on Origin (Battlefront II, The Old Republic (F2P), Empire at War, Knights of the Old Republic (P2P version of The Old Republic))

 

(I'm sorry there are no quotes, no media outlet has posted on this because it is probably irrelevant, but I believe there might be a plan to this other than squeezing more money out of it)

[Zando_]

Does their version of Battlefront II 2005 have the multiplayer update GoG and Steam have? Also though this is pretty cool, GoG has regular sales (around $2.50-3.70 or so) pretty damn regularly on all these classics, and their versions of KOTOR and such especially are more stable and just work better than the Steam ones according to reviews (IDK what version Origin has). Biggest plus is that they're DRM free, no need for any internet connection at all or any app running in the background (and you can install it on multiple PCs, I have copies of BF2 2005 on several laptops and such at home so my sibs can play modded LAN matches), though if you do want one GoG Galaxy is excellent. 

 

TL;DR: Pretty cool of EA so long as their copies are actually stable, but GoG does it better already without the need for the pretty crappy Origin app. 

[Nicnac]

They also brought a bunch of old Star Wars games back up on steam earlier.

[Tristerin]

I think this is more of a Origin Access membership grab.  I just canceled mine last night because BF5 is losing its cool factor (and I should have just bought it for 30 on black Friday sales).  The only reason I canceled my Origin membership is lack of games I actually want to play - so Im guessing its just anything cheap they can add to the subscription plan.  And Star Wars has its cult following.

[Crunchy Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Nicnac said:

They also brought a bunch of old Star Wars games back up on steam earlier.

The old Star Wars games are usually really cheap on Steam during the big sales, I picked up the OG BF2 for just a couple dollars last year or the year before.

[Fnige]

They have lootboxes right... Right?

[RileyTheFox]

3 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Does their version of Battlefront II 2005 have the multiplayer update GoG and Steam have? Also though this is pretty cool, GoG has regular sales (around $2.50-3.70 or so) pretty damn regularly on all these classics, and their versions of KOTOR and such especially are more stable and just work better than the Steam ones according to reviews (IDK what version Origin has). Biggest plus is that they're DRM free, no need for any internet connection at all or any app running in the background (and you can install it on multiple PCs, I have copies of BF2 2005 on several laptops and such at home so my sibs can play modded LAN matches), though if you do want one GoG Galaxy is excellent. 

 

TL;DR: Pretty cool of EA so long as their copies are actually stable, but GoG does it better already without the need for the pretty crappy Origin app. 

I don’t know if it’s the same version. I bought the Steam version when I heard about multiplayer being enabled this year and I played around 8 hours of it before I got fed up of the bugs every damn time I tried to join lobbies. 

 

Im hoping they update the game to make it more stable. The main menu needs changing to support 16:9 and online play could be more stable than it is on Steam.

3 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

I think this is more of a Origin Access membership grab.  I just canceled mine last night because BF5 is losing its cool factor (and I should have just bought it for 30 on black Friday sales).  The only reason I canceled my Origin membership is lack of games I actually want to play - so Im guessing its just anything cheap they can add to the subscription plan.  And Star Wars has its cult following.

I don’t think so. Battlefront II can be bought without a membership for £3.

[RileyTheFox]

Just now, SlimyPython said:

They have lootboxes right... Right?

Yes new update just released! In order to join a lobby, you must buy a $3 key to open a loot box where you have a 35% chance of gaining the ability to play online. So worth it!

[Nicnac]

4 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

The old Star Wars games are usually really cheap on Steam during the big sales, I picked up the OG BF2 for just a couple dollars last year or the year before.

 

I love all those games to pieces. Was super hyped when they brought back Episode 1 racer recently (6 bucks).

And for the rest ... BF, BF2, EaW, Republic commando, KotoR, the force unleashed... you name it 

 

My all time favourite was always Hero Battle on Tatooine in BF2 ^^

[Tristerin]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

I don’t know if it’s the same version. I bought the Steam version when I heard about multiplayer being enabled this year and I played around 8 hours of it before I got fed up of the bugs every damn time I tried to join lobbies. 

 

Im hoping they update the game to make it more stable. The main menu needs changing to support 16:9 and online play could be more stable than it is on Steam.

I don’t think so. Battlefront II can be bought without a membership for £3.

But...all of them are available for Access Basic or Premier.  I guess you missed my point.  They recently went Subscription based - there are like 60+ games you can play for $15 a month.  Adding old cheap titles is the quickest way to build up that library of "free games" for subscription.  Adding Triple AAA new releases - expensive AF.

[RileyTheFox]

Just now, Nicnac said:

 

I love all those games to pieces. Was super hyped when they brought back Episode 1 racer recently.

And for the rest ... BF, BF2, EaW, Republic commando, KotoR, the force unleashed... you name it 

I remember the Force Unleashed on the DS. I was like 5 and didn’t know how to get past one of the levels really early on so I quit playing it. 

[Fnige]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

Yes new update just released! In order to join a lobby, you must buy a $3 key to open a loot box where you have a 35% chance of gaining the ability to play online. So worth it!

Also, After that 35% chance, There will be a 15% chance to join in with people as good as you and a 100% chance that youll join with people better than you

[Nicnac]

1 minute ago, EvilCat70 said:

I remember the Force Unleashed on the DS. I was like 5 and didn’t know how to get past one of the levels really early on so I quit playing it. 

I went back thru a bunch of PS2 games like 5 years ago (when I was 20) that were too hard for me when I was younger and I really enjoyed that.

[RileyTheFox]

Just now, SlimyPython said:

Also, After that 35% chance, There will be a 15% chance to join in with people as good as you and a 100% chance that youll join with people better than you

And if you want to play as any heroes or villains in game? You must play for 40 hours to unlock one!

 

2 minutes ago, Tristerin said:

But...all of them are available for Access Basic or Premier.  I guess you missed my point.  They recently went Subscription based - there are like 60+ games you can play for $15 a month.  Adding old cheap titles is the quickest way to build up that library of "free games" for subscription.  Adding Triple AAA new releases - expensive AF.

You missed what I said too. Battlefront II is available without a membership at all, along with another one. The ones that are Origin Access are a paid version of the free edition, that is also available without Origin Access (free and paid)

 

None of these games are behind a membership, and are honestly so cheap anyways that buying a membership would cost more than buying the games standalone (in the long run)

[Tristerin]

Just now, EvilCat70 said:

And if you want to play as any heroes or villains in game? You must play for 40 hours to unlock one!

 

You missed what I said too. Battlefront II is available without a membership at all, along with another one. The ones that are Origin Access are a paid version of the free edition, that is also available without Origin Access (free and paid)

 

None of these games are behind a membership, and are honestly so cheap anyways that buying a membership would cost more than buying the games standalone (in the long run)

There are lots of free games on Origin...I get 1 a month with no membership usually.  So you are saying they only added Battlefront 2 2005 edition?  Or did they not also add those other Star Wars games to the Basic and Premier membership points (I don't remember seeing some of them last time I looked)?  Because its called nostalgic bait lol. (to get you to buy the membership)

[FezBoy]

Interesting............  But it's still ea so I'mma stick to steam.

[williamcll]

When will there be a new knights of the old republic?