EA has decided today to make some major announcements concerning both The Sims and the Disney owned Star Wars franchise, confirming futures for both series in the gaming world.
First off The Sims 4 has been announced for PC and Mac with a release point of sometime in 2014. Both Maxis and EA have stressed that the game will be a “single player offline experience” which isn’t surprising following the fallout from the SimCity always online issue. I suppose we have to give some credit to the company for learning from a past mistake.
The bigger news, in my opinion, is the deal Disney and EA have just announced stating that EA has been granted the license to produce future Star Wars games. This deal allows EA to publish games for a “core gaming audience” across all interactive platforms, while Disney retain the rights to games development within the social, mobile and tablet spheres.
“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau.
As well as BioWare working on the Star Wars license EA have also stated that DICE and Visceral will create new Star Wars titles.
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive. “Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”
The games themselves will be focusing on new stories outside of the film franchise. Whether this means EA will continue work on Star Wars 1313 and also revive Battlefront is unknown. Here’s an idea. Battlefront goes to DICE and 1313 to Visceral.
Airiaen
Man, DICE making a Stars Wars game could be amazing.
The Avenger
Yeah and Visceral too. They certainly know how to make a well oiled sci-fi game.
cam_manutd
Could not agree more-and they have proved to be good with sp stories with Mirrors Edge xD
Kennykazey
This could lead to something great. Hopefully we’ll hear something more already at E3.
gazzagb
I doubt it, E3 is too soon for them to have anything they want to show or discuss in detail.
ron_mcphatty
…unless they’re resurrecting Battlefront 3?
Kennykazey
They could just announce one or more of the names they’re working on. If they have a PowerPoint slide with the words Battlefront 3 on it, that’ll attract a lot of attention and they can say that more details will be revealed later. I doubt it myself, but it would be cool. Right now I’m more interested in Criterions new game and Mirrors Edge 2.
gazzagb
Yeah, true, I remember when Portal 2 was announced all we saw was the logo and everyone went bonkers. It could be an interesting E3!
gazzagb
DICE making Battlefront would be amazing, but I just hope that they have enough time to do it well – I can see EA trying to get them on as many projects as possible (Battlefield, Medal of Honour, etc) just because they’re a well loved studio with a well known name.
xdarkmagician
Medal of Honor has been shelved, but I get where youre coming from and agree fully.
gazzagb
Oh yeah, forgot about that. My hopes are that in a year or two they’ll resurrect it but as a WW2 FPS.
tonycawley
The star wars games could be great but if they try to coincide the game releases with the film releases it could go horribly wrong, forcing games to rush out before they’re ready.
Also, the fact the sims 4 with be sp offline only does not mean EA won’t make you have an Internet connection before starting it up.
Tuffcub
Disney (Lucas) own Battlefront, unless they’ve licensed that particular franchise then no chance.
teflon
Certainly this would have been on the table, along with all the other Star Wars titles. There’s absolutely no reason for Disney to hold it back out of spite when it could be used to get higher sales.
JonHebrink
Did you not read the article? They sold the license to EA.. (The main point of the article).
Tuffcub
They sold the Star Wars license. it doesnt specifically say they sold previous franchises. Judging by the way Disney have bee wiping out anything Star Wars related I suspect they will want everything to start anew.
jimmy-google
I imagine Disney don’t care as long as they get paid well for the licensing deal. They get paid if the game is a success or not. They probably get more if EA use an existing game IP too.
As EA publish Crytek games they could do worse than getting Crytek UK back in to complete they Battlefield 3 work they’d started (though they maybe busy with Homefront 2)
teflon
Of course nothing specific has been stated, but Disney really won’t care as long as it makes them money. If EA thinks that reviving Battlefront or X-Wing or Rogue Squadron or whatever else has the best chance of getting the fans to plonk down their money, then Disney will be more than happy to facilitate that.
The only thing which could preclude that would be the following sentence from EA’s Gibeau, “The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”
Which would be a bit of a shame.
The Avenger
The news that DICE and Visceral are ‘there’ for Star Wars are more of a comfort to me than the whole EA thing. But now I’ve become truly interested in the next gen.
I reckon Battlefront would be a tricky one though. Multiplayer has come a long way since SW: BF2 and there’s so many people that have something to complain about unless the damn game had CoD or Battlefield in the title. I’m happy for a new battlefront game though. I’d love to see a Republic Commando 2, that would be a major trouser accident if they pulled that game off nicely. And an Empire at war 2. Basically just continue every damn SW game that was made last gen. It would be awesome. And yes I am a major fan of the games.
RocketSOL
Give me a space combat simulator in the Star Wars universe…like X-Wing Alliance. Space sims are in short supply these days!
Oh, and battlefront 3, rogue squadron, 1313 and kotor 3.
C’mon EA ol’ buddy, don’t let me down!
TSBonyman
Hopefully more than just movie tie-ins but they’re in good hand with those studios.
xdarkmagician
while its good to hear theres some plans for future Star Wars games, it is still incredibly hard to get excited for until you see some concepts or something- Plus being EA, well, I’ll just leave it at that. Although its good to hear that Sims 4 will be offline, always preferred The Sims over SimCity.
TURRICAN-808
Please vote as it would be great to have an HD Collection or even KOTOR 3!
https://share.blog.us.playstation.com/ideas/2010/08/13/knights-of-the-old-republic-hd-collection/