Remember when EA shut down Visceral games and "pivoted" project rag tag? Now the new game is cancelled entirely.

[Master Disaster]

Yep, coming from good old Jason Schreier over at Kotaku it appears as though EA has cancelled it's open world star wars title entirely.

Quote

Electronic Arts has canceled its open-world Star Wars game, according to three people familiar with goings-on at the company. The game, announced alongside the shutdown of Visceral Games back in 2017, had been in development at EA’s large office in Vancouver.

 

EA Vancouver, a large studio that mostly handles support for a variety of the publisher’s games including FIFA and Battlefront, had been working on this open-world Star Wars game since October 2017, when EA closed Visceral Games. Until then, Visceral—best known for its popular Dead Space horror series—was developing its own Star Wars game. That project, code-named Ragtag, was a linear action-adventure game directed by Uncharted director Amy Hennig. EA Vancouver had been assisting on the project, and when EA closed Visceral Games on October 17, 2017, the Vancouver studio took it over.

After publishing the article Jason posted an update on the situation and it seems like EA decided they needed some star wars games quicker than the roadmap for this so they cancelled it in favour of smaller titles. It's possible they want something out for the launch of the next gen consoles which are rumoured to release late 2020.

Quote

UPDATE (10:17pm): Since the publication of this article, I’ve talked to several more people familiar with EA Vancouver’s now-cancelled open-world Star Wars game. This project, which was code-named Orca, was very early in development but would involve playing as a scoundrel or bounty hunter who could explore various open-world planets and work with different factions across the Star Wars universe.

 

When EA’s top decision-makers looked at their road map for the next few years, they decided that they needed something earlier than the planned release date for Orca, according to two people familiar with what happened. So they cancelled Orca in favor of a smaller-scale Star Wars project that’s now aimed for much sooner—likely, late 2020, which also happens to be around the time that I’ve heard next-gen consoles will launch. (Might be a bit earlier; might be a bit later. From what I’ve heard, next-gen plans are definitely still in flux.)

 

To EA’s credit, those people said, the publisher did not lay anyone off as part of this transition. This news comes at a time of cost-cutting across the industry, at major publishers including both EA and Activision, as we’ve reported. Some at the studio also hope that Orca might be restarted after this new project is finished. 

https://kotaku.com/ea-cancels-open-world-star-wars-game-1831786371

 

Typical EA, they force a studio to take on an unfamiliar project, shut them down when they can't do it and then to top it all off they cancel the game because it won't be ready in time?

 

Here's a hot take, perhaps if you didn't scrap it mid development and demand a full redesign then it might have been ready a little earlier.

[PlayStation 2]

EA: 

 

[fuzz0r]

EA is a garbage fire.

[Bouzoo]

Have license for 10 years, can't make a good Star Wars game. 

[Arika]

they probably couldn't come up with any ways to force (hah) loot-crates and microtransactions into the game

[Taf the Ghost]

EA made good sports games in the 1990s, made enough money to start buying up other companies and, before their vampire nature was known, had established themselves as a major player. EA is a great business study in the value of just being a first-mover while keeping a bare minimum of quality standards, such that it doesn't always blow up in their face.

[Carclis]

Why Disney hasn't terminated their exclusive contract to create Star Wars games is beyond me. If other studios had the ability to do it we might have actually gotten something decent and Disney wouldn't have to deal with EA dragging their brand through the mud.

[Spotty]

2 minutes ago, Carclis said:

Why Disney hasn't terminated their exclusive contract to create Star Wars games is beyond me. If other studios had the ability to do it we might have actually gotten something decent and Disney wouldn't have to deal with EA dragging their brand through the mud.

[RuffRuffmcgruff]

Just when Activision started stealing the spotlight, EA snatches it right back.

[RejZoR]

3 hours ago, huilun02 said:

EA the grim reaper. With the exception of DICE, just about every other studio has had their IP killed off or frankensteined beyond redemption.

They even violated Pop Cap. They just had to turn cute and fast running 2D game like Plants vs Zombies into some 3D idiocy. WHY?!

[Carclis]

19 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

They even violated Pop Cap. They just had to turn cute and fast running 2D game like Plants vs Zombies into some 3D idiocy. WHY?!

Give em a break. They brought back Dungeon Keeper for us!

[Doobeedoo]

I'd really like to see Dead Space 4

[DrDerp]

12 minutes ago, Doobeedoo said:

I'd really like to see Dead Space 4

One can only wish… seriously though, it’s saddening that so many amazing games got cancelled. I’m glad they didn’t get their hands on the System Shock franchise though.

[Shreyas1]

5 hours ago, huilun02 said:

EA the grim reaper. With the exception of DICE, just about every other studio has had their IP killed off or frankensteined beyond redemption.

With Battlefront 2 and Battlefield V, I don't think it will stay that way for long.

[Humbug]

Why the hell did Disney give them exclusive rights. Why not just work with game devs on a project by project basis allowing yourself the freedom to choose the best dev for the job.

 

Star Was at it's core is mythological story telling. To have the star wars IP and not make single player games is criminal. What a waste.

[Fasauceome]

7 hours ago, fuzz0r said:

EA is a garbage fire.

I think "fire" is giving them too much credit, at least fire is fun to watch. EA is plain garbage.

[Fasauceome]

10 minutes ago, Humbug said:

To have the star wars IP and not make single player games is criminal.

Muh loot boxes

[Shreyas1]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

They did a 180 with Battlefront 2. And the only real problem with Battlefield V was the public overreaction to "robot arm lady" who doesn't even exist in the live game. And the lack of "historical accuracy" which no one seriously wants in an arcade shooter franchise. You can combine the playerbase of every WW1/WW2 shooter that takes their historical accuracy seriously, and still not match Battlefield.

Doesn't matter why it happened, one studio caused 2 rather big controversies, and I don't think EA is happy about it at all.

 

 

And with battlefront 2, even if the game is good now, it still angered many people to the point of legal action on lootboxes.

[ravenshrike]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

And the only real problem with Battlefield V was the public overreaction to "robot arm lady" who doesn't even exist in the live game.

Why do you think that is? If you look at the paucity of content at release for skins et al, it's pretty clear they ripped out a bunch of stuff at the last minute.

[peanuts104]

ALL I WANT IS A GOOD STAR WARS GAME IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR  ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REMASTER THE X-WING SERIES IT CAN'T BE THAT HARD I SWEAR

[Sauron]

8 hours ago, huilun02 said:

With the exception of DICE

Give it another year, BFV hasn't done so well

[peanuts104]

1 hour ago, Humbug said:

Why the hell did Disney give them exclusive rights. Why not just work with game devs on a project by project basis allowing yourself the freedom to choose the best dev for the job.

 

Star Was at it's core is mythological story telling. To have the star wars IP and not make single player games is criminal. What a waste.

Because the Star Wars franchise was an investment to them and they want to put as little effort into it as possible with the most payout, ergo they wanted an "experienced" game publisher with multiple studios to work on it.  On paper, it's a good idea.  EA pitched the idea basically saying "Hey, we can handle all the minutia on the technical side, distribution, marketing, etc and we have multiple studios so we can work on multiple games for you at once."  That being said I think Disney is finding out why EA is so hated by the gaming community and I would not be surprised if the exclusivity gets dropped at some point.

[suicidalfranco]

Why can't Disney be like game workshop and just give away rights to bits and pieces of Star Wars lore to anyone pitching a good idea for said piece of lore and has the money to make it possible.

[Humbug]

11 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

Because the Star Wars franchise was an investment to them and they want to put as little effort into it as possible with the most payout, ergo they wanted an "experienced" game publisher with multiple studios to work on it.  On paper, it's a good idea.  EA pitched the idea basically saying "Hey, we can handle all the minutia on the technical side, distribution, marketing, etc and we have multiple studios so we can work on multiple games for you at once."  That being said I think Disney is finding out why EA is so hated by the gaming community and I would not be surprised if the exclusivity gets dropped at some point.

Ya they could have had the same benefits of working with EA without giving them exclusive rights.

 

Back in the day Lucasarts used to maintain their freedom to choose the best dev for the job. So for example when they wanted a 1st/3rd person acion game they went to Raven, when they wanted an RPG they went to Bioware. The result was Jedi Knight and Knights of the Old Republic. When they wanted a Tie Fighter game they partnered with Totally games who had experience with making fun combat flight simulators. It's not rocket science.

 

Part of the problem seems to be that Lucasarts was a gaming company who knew Star Wars and knew how to work with game devs and get the best out of them and allocate the right projects. Disney probably doesn't know how to navigate the game industry as well, so they just take their money and hand it off to EA. And then EA damages the brand.

[Delicieuxz]

11 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

That being said I think Disney is finding out why EA is so hated by the gaming community and I would not be surprised if the exclusivity gets dropped at some point.

Disney would have to buy back the rights from EA for the remainder of the license term, or find some condition of the license that they could argue EA has violated and therefore voids their agreement.