Star Wars Battlefront

"But you said we would have exclusive rights to making Star Wars games!"

"We are altering the deal. Pray we do not alter it any further."

Just finish the scene (And I'll admit, this is probably the Darkest Timeline)

EA: Lord Disney, we are jut approaching rele.....gags

Disney: You have failed me for the last time, Admiral.

EA Collapses

Disney: Captain Activision?

Activision: Yes My Lord.

Disney: Prepare the launch of more videogame products and movie tie-ins. You are in command now, Admiral Activision

(On the bright Side Admiral Activision dies when his ship crashes in the Death Star!)

edited 20th Nov '17 6:41:16 PM by Ghilz

"Sir! Bioware's broken free of EA and Disney has them coming for our license!"

"Intensify the video game development, I don't want to give Disney a reason!"

"-GAME IS DISMAL FAILURE-"

"INTENSIFY VIDEO GAME BETA!"

"TOO LATE!"

...Is this a bad time? It's a financial analyst saying things that will outrage 99% of us.

I agree.

$60 for a lot of games is ridiculous. Witcher 3 is like 4 copies of Dragon Age: Origins and I got my money's worth there.

I'd be happy if they just released appropriately sized video games with expansions or soon after sequels versus THE BIGGEST GAME EVER. However, I don't think this contradicts the idea Loot Boxes and trying to trick gamers into spending more is bad. It's the equivalent of selling a DVD player for 20 bucks and then putting DV Ds in a mystery box.

edited 20th Nov '17 6:58:53 PM by CharlesPhipps

I saw that on Reddit today. Fuck you, financial analyst guy.

I admit, if I was a financial analyst guy, I'd do it this way:

"Okay, chop up Dragon Age: Inquisition into three games."

"Sir?"

"Yes. Each 40 bucks. No DLC, just more decent sized 20-30 hour games."

Charles Phipps' not being serious, he just likes to feel special.

Ehhh....kind of.

I'm willing to meet the developers halfway here.

Mind you, 50% of the Witcher 3's costs was advertising so if you're unable to make games profitable without gambling then maybe you can start cutting costs there. I also am willing to pay a fair price for a decent game. The economy sucks and I might have to pick and choose my yearly game purchases but I was okay with paying for both Halo 2 and Halo 3 as well as two Deus Ex: Mankind Divided games.

It's just that the stupid damn microtransactions and splitting the game caused MD to fail.

edited 20th Nov '17 7:05:45 PM by CharlesPhipps

I'm not sure associating Star Wars with gambling is really all that bad for its image. It has racists and other scumbags. It's the model for Rooting for the Empire, and it already has gambling and other shady things right in it if you're the sort of fan who reads. I mean, fuck, you could play Sabacc in the real world if you dug up the various books that set out the rules for you, and designed special computerized cards that could change faces with a signal.

Not to mention the slug monster imprisoning two of the three women we ever got on screen in the original trilogy. In a gold bikini no less. The new movies haven't had female fanservice yet, but let's not exaggerate the actual effect gambling might have on the series. As much merchandise as they sell with this series, it ISN'T a kid series, and never really was.

Just because the films can have dark stuff in them doesn't mean Disney wants Star Wars associated with real-life gambling. Depicting shady things in fiction isn't the same as endorsing/enabling them in real life.

Having dark stuff in your work isn't the same as having RL darker stuff associated with your Brand.

Game of Thrones has Slavery in it. It wouldn't make HBO buying slaves to film it okay.

Then maybe I misspoke.

Star Wars has a fandom which includes rooting for the Empire but the franchise itself is pro-democracy and pro-inclusiveness. There's a reason George Lucas made sure to start adding people of color to his movies even if he didn't do so well for the first one. It's also why he famously put the kibosh on a TIE FIGHTER sequel because he didn't like the idea of muddying the fact the Empire was the bad guys.

And Disney is famously the first major corporation who put their foot down to say, "gay people and their families are welcome at our establishment. F*** off bigots."

But I imagine it's less gambling for being shady and more gambling as Disney doesn't want Star Wars associated with CRIMINAL activity.

edited 20th Nov '17 8:41:50 PM by CharlesPhipps

I would have put Criminal but settled on Shady because there's plenty of places out there that regulate and allow gambling. It's not really more criminal than, say, drinking. It's in that gray area. If you can remember when to quit, you're not out any more than if you'd just sunk your money in a weekend's worth of booze.

ETA: And yes, I know that there's plenty of criminal activity surrounding gambling. Same as with other drugs. Just pointing out that it's totally possible for non-addicts to cut their losses and leave the tables.

edited 21st Nov '17 3:38:29 AM by Journeyman

I'm generally of a mind a lot of people can't help themselves but am pro-legalization of a bunch of things.

However, let's say "Disney would not want Battlefront associated with what might be labeled criminal activity in a number of states."

edited 21st Nov '17 3:39:56 AM by CharlesPhipps

So, according to Eurogamer, Battlefront 2 is down 60% on physical sales compared to the first game. It's hard to know how much the lootbox controversy directly impacted that — obviously more and more people are buying digitally, maybe people are just less hyped than there were during Star Wars' big initial return, maybe people who got the first game were left unexcited for the second, etc. — but I can't imagine it helped.

edited 21st Nov '17 5:33:21 AM by Lavaeolus

Everybody I've talked to who pre-ordered it has since cancelled or refunded. The Gamblefront II fiasco is a major reason why.

edited 21st Nov '17 6:04:19 AM by MajorTom

It's pretty much the reason why I don't have the game.

Honestly the original game had so little content I saw no point in buying the sequel, even if weren't for the crippled progression system to favor lootboxes.

I never played the original (EA) Battlefront for pretty much that reason. I got into the closed beta way back, and there really just wasn't enough there. But I'm a sucker for Star Wars plots, the Empire campaign stuff sounded kind of interesting, it looked like they were trying to address the problems with the original game, and maybe most importantly the game came out just before my birthday, so I probably would've jumped on it.

Ah well. No real hard loss on my part.

edited 21st Nov '17 6:32:09 AM by Lavaeolus

In slightly related news

EA is dialing back Lootboxes with Need for Speed Payback following the Battlefront 2 debacle (By reducing how much grinding one needs to do to get lootboxes if just playing the game.)

I guess it's as much "Learning from its mistakes" EA can manage.

edited 21st Nov '17 6:48:28 AM by Ghilz

Gameplay-gating progression systems should not exist outside of certain genres such as RPGs and MMOs.