Star Wars franchise stays alive, EA signs multi-year publishing deal with Disney

LucasArts may be dead, but thankfully, EA has stepped up and signed a deal with Disney to develop and publish Star Wars games. As much as we have a love/hate relationship with EA, they are the right company for the franchise...no, really.

John Pleasant, Disney Interactive’s Co-President issued the following statement:

“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come. 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.”

Now EA gets rights to do publishing and developing of Star Wars games, but when it comes to mobile, social, and online games, Disney will retain the rights to developing those types of Star Wars games.

This is actually good news since EA has studios like Bioware(KOTOR, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect), Visceral Games (Dead Space franchise), and DICE (Battlefield 3) as possible developers for future Star Wars games. This franchise just seems to fit well with EA, but hopefully they don't "DMR" use and make everybody hate them all over again. For now, I'm happy.

Like the new deal made? Or do you prefer another company to get the rights?

[Source: EA ]

Pick 5: Remembering the best of LucasArts

With the recent announcement of LucasArts closing down thanks to Disney being the new owners, I think it was only right to pay tribute to great games that came out of that studio. This pick 5 is mostly Star Wars of course, but these games will never be the same in my book. It's the end of a great era. 

Jedi Outcast

Jedi Outcast had the weirdest controls and gameplay with a lightsaber, but I can't deny how much fun I had when this game came out. This game had a mix of FPS and third person perspective, which was quite unusual during its time. It was set after the events of the original Star Wars trilogy and to be honest, the StarWars fan in me enjoyed the story that took after the films. Jedi Outcast was also the first game to give me a dose of lightsaber multiplayer action, which was quite chaotic looking back. We had players literally flailing their lightsabers everywhere, it was amazing. This game wasn't developed by LucasArts Studios directly, but they were one of the publishers and they still gave the greenlight on this project since this is a licensed title.

Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2

Star Wars: KOTOR 1 and 2 are games I'll never seem to forget. It was the perfect game to make an RPG out of the Star Wars universe. if you're familiar with Bioware's previous and recent works, then you'll be familiar with the game's mechanics. The turn-based D&D style combat is never a bad thing. I can still recall the shocking ending in the first game when you find out the truth about the protagonist, such a classic.

Star Wars battlefront 1 and 2

To sum up Battlefront for the people that have never heard of this game, it's pretty much Battlefield in a nut shell, but in the Star Wars world. There are classes, vehicles, big maps, and iconic characters from the Star Wars universe, it's a multiplayer game everybody loved. It was great and it's sad that a sequel to Star Wars Battlefront 2 never came to light.Thanks to the online leaks, it was confirmed a third game was in development, but was cancelled. Who knows why it never pushed through. With LucasArts now closed, any hope of getting a game like this again is gone. Just imagine Star Wars Battlefront in the graphics today? Mind blown.

Monkey island series

A LucasArts game that isn't a Star Wars game!? Believe it, and it even turned out to be one of the best point and click adventures out there today. Monkey Island was entertaining to play and even fun to watch for people spectating the game. Curse of Monkey Island was personal favorite and was actually my official introduction to point and click adventures. I've been exposed to games such as Phantasmagoria and the Gabriel Knight series, but this one I really played and finished. These types of games are quite rare and the you'll hardly see anything like this again. Hopefully a publisher or a studio picks this series up because it would be such a waste. Actually, I wish Telltale games does some magic and gets the go signal to work on another Monkey Island. They were actually the developers of one Monkey Island game, and I'd like them to do another. That my friends, is a match made in heaven.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

This is probably a personal favorite. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire is set after the Battle of Hoth, and it tells a backstory placed during episodes V and VI. It's a third person shooter at heart and it was one of my first games on my N64. It was a console launch game and I still remember playing this game over and over, especially the Battle of Hoth stage, that lets you participate in the battle itself. Looking back, it did look like crap, but I clearly remember me getting all those floating logo symbols and playing for hours even when I was done with the game. Good times.

It's sad to see LucasArts go. I was really anticipating Star Wars 1313 since it was bringing Uncharted-like style into the Star Wars universe, which looked amazing to me. But of course Disney still needs to think as a company, so hopefully it won't be years until we see studios or publishers make use of the Star Wars franchise.

What about you? Was there any game you loved that came out of LucasArts?

Weekend, what are you playing?

Busy week for me and I'm sure you guys had the same. Just like last week, tell what you've been playing? I've returned to a game I thought I'd never play again, but thanks to a cousin, I was able to play around with it a bit more.

Quash: What game? Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yes, that MMORPG once again hit my PC. But I didn't buy a copy. A cousin of mine was playing it but after a month he actually he stopped playing. It never clicked he said. So after giving his experience with Bioware's first MMO, he offered me his account which now has about 11 days left in it. Heck, 11 days to try out the full game? Why the hell not. On saturday, that's all I did that day. It felt like the World of Warcraft days. At the end of the day I was able to reach from level 1 to 16. My cousin was shocked, I just said I do things quick.

If I wasn't given this opportunity, I would still be playing Resonance of Fate, a JRPG that I've been wanting since it's release in 2010. But for now that will be on hold until my 11 days are up. I have no plans on continuing on my cousin's account so after 11 days, goodbye Star Wars. With Diablo 3 and Dragon's Dogma on the horizon, there's just no room for any other game.

Migoy:

Just tried out Vanquish for the first time this weekend and I am having a blast. Shooting robots in this game is fun, the action is fast paced and there are explosions happening left and right. Also got a 2nd hand PS1 and played some Bust A Groove 2 and a few laps of Chocobo Racing on it. More Bayonetta, I think I'm almost done with the game. I just reached a 4million score in Tetris DS, my highest so far and at level 179. The lines cleared stopped counting once it his 999 but I can assure you that I got more than that.