The Current State of 'Star Wars' Gaming

Star Wars' history with video games has been a rocky one to say the least. From the cancellation of LucasArts' Battlefront 3, to the chaotic launch of EA's Battlefront 2, the Star Wars video game curse continues to this day. Though that isn't to say there haven't been diamonds in the rough.

Starting in the early 1990s, the game company formerly known as LucasArts and currently known as Lucasfilm Games began publishing Star Wars games with the acclaimed space combat simulator Star Wars: X-Wing, which went on to become a successful series. This was followed up by more successful game series including Rebel Assault, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight and Battlefront, each one experimenting with wildly different styles of gameplay and presentation.

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While producing many titles by itself, LucasArts would also partner with other game companies. One of the most notable examples of this was their partnership with BioWare for the creation of the still beloved Knights of the Old Republic series, the first game of which recently had a remake announced from Sony and Aspyr. LucasArts would also have other successful partnerships, such as with Traveller's Tales for the LEGO Star Wars series as well as Petroglyph Games for the Empire At War real-time strategy series.

Things were looking great for LucasArts for many years. Though sadly, this winning streak wouldn't last. Personally, I'd say LucasArts' downfall truly began with the cancellation of the anticipated Battlefront 3; largely a result of the company's tenuous and stressful partnership with co-developer Free Radical. Due to further issues at the company, LucasArts would begin to rapidly scale down its internal projects, leading to further cancellations and less successful releases, such as the critically mixed The Force Unleashed series and the critically lambasted Kinect Star Wars.

While the company did still have successes from time to time with titles like Republic Commando and the long-running MMORPG The Old Republic, its momentum continued to decline with the cancellations of titles like 1313, The Force Unleashed 3 and an untitled Darth Maul game. Then finally, with the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars franchise in 2012, LucasArts finally closed its doors and, until its reinvention as Lucasfilm Games, left the Star Wars license to be handled by other game companies hired by Disney. This would soon lead to the corporation giving the exclusive gaming rights of the franchise to Electronic Arts.

Needless to say, EAs' handling of Star Wars got off to a rocky start with the straightforward and rushed Battlefront in 2015. In response to the criticisms of the game's lack of content, EA guaranteed the fans in 2017 that that year's Battlefront II would be a major upgrade. While it did eventually become that, it didn't start that way as the game was widely scrutinized for its heavy use of micro-transactions, eventually leading to a complete overhaul of the game which greatly improved it in the long run. Luckily, EA would go on to fare much better with the license, with the releases of the critically acclaimed Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons.

Then earlier this year, much to many people's surprise, Lucasfilm officially announced the reinvention of LucasArts as Lucasfilm Games; a fresh gaming company that would seek out many different partners in developing brand new Star Wars games. With this announcement comes a wave of excitement from fans and general players, who are eager to see the franchise branch out into new and exciting styles and genres not seen in previous Star Wars titles.

As of now, fans are currently waiting to see what Lucasfilm Games will accomplish with the license as new rumors and announcements begin to appear online. The first of these was the previously mentioned remake of Knights of the Old Republic, which was officially announced during Sony's PlayStation 2021 Showcase and has led to immense anticipation from the fandom. Though with all that said, I don't think it's fair to expect any big releases from the still new company for at least another year.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and wave of worker abuse allegations have certainly affected the game industry over the past two years, leading to many companies having to scale back production of previously announced projects. With this in mind, I believe it's fair to expect that Lucasfilm Games will take the time to find its footing and figure out what it wants to do, which is for the better in my opinion. As potentially exciting as the recently announced Eclipse appears to be, I don't want Lucasfilm Games to rush into it as they've done with other games in the past. With the game's High Republic Era setting still being defined by numerous authors and developer Quantic Dream still facing their own controversies, I would prefer that Lucasfilm Games take as much time as they need for the project to succeed.

LucasArts originally fell off due to unstable partnerships and haphazard development cycles. So if we're going to see more unique and innovative Star Wars games in the future, I'd prefer that Lucasfilm Games take it one step at a time and have their projects planned out before committing to them. In the words of Han Solo, "Don't get cocky, kid."

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Written by Zach Bernard

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