This goes exactly into what you mentioned not too long ago about being cynical about games, but I definitely feel an upwelling of said cynicism considering this is an EA-affiliated title. I do desperately hope I’m wrong though…I LOVE good Star Wars games and I want this one to do well.
Here’s hoping EA has learned a lesson about loot-boxes and micro-transactions. If so, I’ll happily buy the game just to give some positive reinforcement to them about what kinds of games I, and presumably so many others, actually want.
I can understand the skepticism, I really can. This one though I have hope for. A college buddy of mine is on the dev team and the studio fought like hell to make a complete game with no loot box crap. Lots of folks jobs are on the line if it goes bad. But if it works we might see a return to the good old days when buying a game meant buying the whole game.
With star wars now being a disney property, their name is as equally liable to be dragged through the mud if EA releases another sub-standard star wars game.
And the House of Mouse got increasingly involved with game development when EA botched Battlefront 2 with its lootboxes, forcing them to full reverse. So no surprise this game has none of that.
That was wishful thinking without much fact. The brand manager of Star Wars at Disney has basically said that as long as Disney gets money out of the deal, they are fine with EA putting out whatever they want. Of course, that was a while ago, and a string of bad Star Wars PR, justified or not, could have turned some higher heads in the House of Mouse. We’ll just have to wait and pray.
If I remember right there is still a little difference between Lucas art and Disney. Yes Disney own the right for the film and merch. But I am not sure about the games.
Sill I was greatly impressed by the review done by some YouTube who hates EA. They also encourage to buy this game to show ea what a good game is.
Personally I am thinking about buying it. But I still have some trouble with the Origin store …
@Ekristoffe When Disney purchased Star Wars, they also obtained LucasArts as part of the deal. They laid off their entire game development staff, cancelled all active development, and turned the company into a licensor.
They then gave exclusive rghts to Electronic Arts, meaning Electronic Arts is the only company allowed to create new Star Wars video games at the current time.
In short, yes, Disney owns the rights to all video games created after the merger, though games created prior to the merger I believe are still owned by the companies that made them.
I suspect this game is a “we need to do this to keep the franchise or Disney will take it off us” rather than an actual change of pace from EA, i suspect they will churn out one of these, show that it is not profitable like the battlefronts, use the figure to prove to Disney that the consumer doesn’t want single player complete games, and go back to being Evil All-consuming again.
Nekopanzer
5 years ago
I need to check Revelations for confirmation, but I do believe EA publishing an honest game is one of the signs of the end times.
And the bEAst which I saw was like unto a chimera: and the Mouse gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death by microtransactions; and his deadly wound was Respawned: and all the world wondered after the bEAst.
And they worshipped the Mouse which gave power unto the bEAst: and they worshipped the bEAst, saying, ‘Who is like unto the bEAst?’
Rather than giving them credit for publishing a game that one of their *many* mistreated studios has diligently worked on with little interference I’d rather just give that credit to the development studio, thanks very much.
That EA didn’t step in and fuck it up isn’t an action that deserves praise. They’re one of the industry leaders in buying promising studios and then driving them into the ground.
I try not to give people/organizations credit for doing their job correctly. Will i eventually buy the game? dunno. I’m a gamer with a backlog. Praising EA will not reinforce the behavior but give them permission to test how much monetization is too much.
EA, here’s a clue, ANY monetization based on randomization, increased stats, anything advantageous to the player made purchasable, is too much. Full expansions or additional story missions are perfectly okay though.
I mean, as far as developers go their job is a broad “Try to make the screaming maw of the gaming public be pleased momentarily and not eat you” , which is why I give them credit. It can be hard to do that. We’re a rapidly changing customer base that loves something one day but hates it a two games further down the line in some cases but then you have shit like Pokemon that doesn’t change the formula *at all* for two decades. That’s why I give them credit. Publishers though? You’re there to push things out and… Read more »
Twilight Faze
5 years ago
Takes me back to how EA got the award for being the worst video game company ever and they thought it was a badge of honor. Reading this makes me feel Tim has some kind of psychic link to the company’s inner mind (which, if we’re honest, isn’t that much of a stretch)
I think you may be giving EA too much credit. It’s micro transaction schemes make it more likely that there is no inner mind, just a machine god that survives on money and the souls of closed dev studios.
I dunno, a soulless husk kept alive through the sacrifice of psyker souls? Not to much of a stretch to apply that to EA
Scortch
5 years ago
I had sworn off ever buying anything from EA, exactly because of that last slide there. But if they do this game right, and don’t try and suck the money out of us, does it send a message to them that this is the right way to go? Or am I trying to justify my absolute desire to buy what looks like an amazing star wars game?
Not really. You’re buying a complete product, so what you see is what you buy, rather than purchasing your own gambling machine to pour cash into for fake prizes. You pay one time for a product that will give you hours of entertainment, rather than pay dozens of times for small cosmetic crap that does nothing for you. That’s why the first is just a bit pricey, rather than soul-sucking like the second.
Pretty sure that’s only because EA takes popularity as a call for “Please try to manipulate money out of us” like the loonies they are.
TuffMelon
5 years ago
This case of EA being EA, but Respawn being reasonably competent is what’s so frustrating about the situation we’re in at the moment. If you were to boycott ALL the EA published products, EA will just shut down one of the studios because they aren’t making enough money from them, and we’ll lose a competent studio, while EA itself will be mostly unaffected because they make enough money from the whales who pay for stuff in NBA, etc. Its kind of why i’m more on board with buying from the studios you want to support, while saying a collective ‘fuck… Read more »
I don’t think you are a fool, I think pretty much everyone here is on the EA sucks wagon. The thing we are all trying to figure out is how to course correct a company. What is the right message to send that will let them see that a single player game without blatantly sucking the money out of us, is the way to go?
ShadOtrett
5 years ago
See… I very much agreed with the sentiment that I’d like to get back to just ENJOYING video games: Being excited about them for what they are and how much fun we can have, giving companies a chance to be forgiven so we can move on, better and happier for it. Buuuuut… EA has to be my big exception for now. At the very least, until they release, or are forced to release, their stranglehold on the Star Wars franchise. This game could be AMAZING. It could be the best we’ve seen in YEARS! Could become a template for a… Read more »
James Kite
5 years ago
So it’s safe to dip my toe back in the water?
nealithi
5 years ago
I want to make what may seem an unfair comparison. When Obsidian announced Outer Worlds I was excited. When release day came I was still excited and got it as fast as I could and did not put it down till I beat it at least once. It has not disappointed me. I see a game announced from EA or someone owned by EA anymore and I feel sad. Sad that another great idea is about to be destroyed because they don’t care. I will look at the reviews of people that do still get excited for things EA puts… Read more »
Putting the question of the comparison aside, I think the sentiment is fair. Waiting for reviews before commiting to the purchase is perfectly reasonable, word of mouth spreads like wildfire nowadays anyway.
I learned my lesson years ago by purchasing a CD with a game I’d never heard about. You can probably guess how that story ended.
Dechs Kaison
5 years ago
You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. This comic right here is feeding the cynical attitude that pushes people to outrage.
No, when EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, anyone releases a game where there’s as much effort spend monetizing post purchase as the rest of the game that’s what pushes people to outrage. The point of this comic is that the monetization doesn’t need to exist and doesn’t need to be normal. That there’s still solid single player games that give you a complete story without sucking money from you.
The comic is cynical, but it isn’t what causes the outrage.
Joey
5 years ago
Sadly I fear I’ll never be able to enjoy this game fully due to the decision to model the main character directly off the actor. Shameless has ruined it for me.
smittycr22
5 years ago
Nice 😀
The rAt
5 years ago
OK, now I want to read the rest of the definition of “Viewership” that was partially shown. There’s gotta be some shade in there about streaming-service overload.
Coffil
5 years ago
I always get a good chuckle/laugh out of these strips but boy this one just drove deep and hit every single mark.
Merendel
5 years ago
Even with how good it looks so far not getting it right away because EA. I’ll reevaluate in 6 months or so if they haven’t managed to do something sleazy after the fact.
Honestly if I could buy direct from the developers and be sure not one cent went to EA I’d get it right away but I really dont want to send money to EA ever agian unless they clean up their act.
John
5 years ago
lol “soul pipe” = “profit”
Alex
5 years ago
Alright TIM you won this time, this game looks like a Legit Good Game, but i wont support EA so this will be the 1st time in 10 years that i will actually “Miss Out” by sticking to my principles which is the most important thing, besides Death Stranding has kept me occupy for far too long ( is not for everyone i cant recommend it) so go on enjoy your GOOD STAR WARS GAME.
Trevor
5 years ago
And then:
Loot-box: Also called “Surprise Mechanics”
A virtual slot machine designed to squeeze out as much money as possible as they try for the good shit.
Vedrit
5 years ago
One of the YouTubers I follow has been streaming it, but I had to stop because it was kind of painful how terrible they are at combat. Force powers? Blocking? Nah fam, they only know dodge and ATTACCCCCCC
MasterofBalance
3 years ago
Reminds me of the Amazing World of Gumball.
“Aha! Here it is! ‘Half always equals… whatever Tobias says’?!?”
Daniel
3 years ago
So look…this is what happens when Big Business (with max corporate bean counters) meet video games. That is to say, NOTHING GOOD!
24
Bravo Sir, Bravo.
This goes exactly into what you mentioned not too long ago about being cynical about games, but I definitely feel an upwelling of said cynicism considering this is an EA-affiliated title. I do desperately hope I’m wrong though…I LOVE good Star Wars games and I want this one to do well.
Here’s hoping EA has learned a lesson about loot-boxes and micro-transactions. If so, I’ll happily buy the game just to give some positive reinforcement to them about what kinds of games I, and presumably so many others, actually want.
I can understand the skepticism, I really can. This one though I have hope for. A college buddy of mine is on the dev team and the studio fought like hell to make a complete game with no loot box crap. Lots of folks jobs are on the line if it goes bad. But if it works we might see a return to the good old days when buying a game meant buying the whole game.
Yes and no. He’s not saying anything good or bad about the game, only about EA and it’s reputation about exploiting games.
And the way he did it was in an almost neutral way as well.
Respawn is a child company of EA, and it’s misbehavin’
Hi, i am The One who said that 2 comic pages ago.
I heard EA doesn’t have much choice, their license is being threatened by the Mouse
Not sure why the house of Mouse cares. Its not like EA can do much more damage to the star wars IP than what the recent movie controversies have done.
With star wars now being a disney property, their name is as equally liable to be dragged through the mud if EA releases another sub-standard star wars game.
And the House of Mouse got increasingly involved with game development when EA botched Battlefront 2 with its lootboxes, forcing them to full reverse. So no surprise this game has none of that.
That was wishful thinking without much fact. The brand manager of Star Wars at Disney has basically said that as long as Disney gets money out of the deal, they are fine with EA putting out whatever they want. Of course, that was a while ago, and a string of bad Star Wars PR, justified or not, could have turned some higher heads in the House of Mouse. We’ll just have to wait and pray.
If I remember right there is still a little difference between Lucas art and Disney. Yes Disney own the right for the film and merch. But I am not sure about the games.
Sill I was greatly impressed by the review done by some YouTube who hates EA. They also encourage to buy this game to show ea what a good game is.
Personally I am thinking about buying it. But I still have some trouble with the Origin store …
@Ekristoffe When Disney purchased Star Wars, they also obtained LucasArts as part of the deal. They laid off their entire game development staff, cancelled all active development, and turned the company into a licensor.
They then gave exclusive rghts to Electronic Arts, meaning Electronic Arts is the only company allowed to create new Star Wars video games at the current time.
In short, yes, Disney owns the rights to all video games created after the merger, though games created prior to the merger I believe are still owned by the companies that made them.
I suspect this game is a “we need to do this to keep the franchise or Disney will take it off us” rather than an actual change of pace from EA, i suspect they will churn out one of these, show that it is not profitable like the battlefronts, use the figure to prove to Disney that the consumer doesn’t want single player complete games, and go back to being Evil All-consuming again.
I need to check Revelations for confirmation, but I do believe EA publishing an honest game is one of the signs of the end times.
Take your upvote, good sir.
Great now i’m torn between wanting a good star wars game and kinda hoping EA screws up later to avoid the apocalypse.
And the bEAst which I saw was like unto a chimera: and the Mouse gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death by microtransactions; and his deadly wound was Respawned: and all the world wondered after the bEAst.
And they worshipped the Mouse which gave power unto the bEAst: and they worshipped the bEAst, saying, ‘Who is like unto the bEAst?’
That’s quite the Revelation(s).
Pretty sure it’s somewhere in the holy books of Ethan 1.0’s Church of Gaming.
Rather than giving them credit for publishing a game that one of their *many* mistreated studios has diligently worked on with little interference I’d rather just give that credit to the development studio, thanks very much.
That EA didn’t step in and fuck it up isn’t an action that deserves praise. They’re one of the industry leaders in buying promising studios and then driving them into the ground.
I try not to give people/organizations credit for doing their job correctly. Will i eventually buy the game? dunno. I’m a gamer with a backlog. Praising EA will not reinforce the behavior but give them permission to test how much monetization is too much.
EA, here’s a clue, ANY monetization based on randomization, increased stats, anything advantageous to the player made purchasable, is too much. Full expansions or additional story missions are perfectly okay though.
I mean, as far as developers go their job is a broad “Try to make the screaming maw of the gaming public be pleased momentarily and not eat you” , which is why I give them credit. It can be hard to do that. We’re a rapidly changing customer base that loves something one day but hates it a two games further down the line in some cases but then you have shit like Pokemon that doesn’t change the formula *at all* for two decades. That’s why I give them credit. Publishers though? You’re there to push things out and… Read more »
Takes me back to how EA got the award for being the worst video game company ever and they thought it was a badge of honor. Reading this makes me feel Tim has some kind of psychic link to the company’s inner mind (which, if we’re honest, isn’t that much of a stretch)
I think you may be giving EA too much credit. It’s micro transaction schemes make it more likely that there is no inner mind, just a machine god that survives on money and the souls of closed dev studios.
You dare compare the Holy Emperor to the abomination that is EA? HERESY!!
I dunno, a soulless husk kept alive through the sacrifice of psyker souls? Not to much of a stretch to apply that to EA
I had sworn off ever buying anything from EA, exactly because of that last slide there. But if they do this game right, and don’t try and suck the money out of us, does it send a message to them that this is the right way to go? Or am I trying to justify my absolute desire to buy what looks like an amazing star wars game?
Probably both 😀
I’m not sure how much this costs in America, but it’s £55 in UK. To my mind £55 counts as sucking money out of us.
Not really. You’re buying a complete product, so what you see is what you buy, rather than purchasing your own gambling machine to pour cash into for fake prizes. You pay one time for a product that will give you hours of entertainment, rather than pay dozens of times for small cosmetic crap that does nothing for you. That’s why the first is just a bit pricey, rather than soul-sucking like the second.
With the conversion rate you’re paying about 7-8 quid more than we are.
Actually, it would just tell them “okay, they bought this one, load all the extra monetization into the sequel!”
Pretty sure that’s only because EA takes popularity as a call for “Please try to manipulate money out of us” like the loonies they are.
This case of EA being EA, but Respawn being reasonably competent is what’s so frustrating about the situation we’re in at the moment. If you were to boycott ALL the EA published products, EA will just shut down one of the studios because they aren’t making enough money from them, and we’ll lose a competent studio, while EA itself will be mostly unaffected because they make enough money from the whales who pay for stuff in NBA, etc. Its kind of why i’m more on board with buying from the studios you want to support, while saying a collective ‘fuck… Read more »
I don’t think you are a fool, I think pretty much everyone here is on the EA sucks wagon. The thing we are all trying to figure out is how to course correct a company. What is the right message to send that will let them see that a single player game without blatantly sucking the money out of us, is the way to go?
See… I very much agreed with the sentiment that I’d like to get back to just ENJOYING video games: Being excited about them for what they are and how much fun we can have, giving companies a chance to be forgiven so we can move on, better and happier for it. Buuuuut… EA has to be my big exception for now. At the very least, until they release, or are forced to release, their stranglehold on the Star Wars franchise. This game could be AMAZING. It could be the best we’ve seen in YEARS! Could become a template for a… Read more »
So it’s safe to dip my toe back in the water?
I want to make what may seem an unfair comparison. When Obsidian announced Outer Worlds I was excited. When release day came I was still excited and got it as fast as I could and did not put it down till I beat it at least once. It has not disappointed me. I see a game announced from EA or someone owned by EA anymore and I feel sad. Sad that another great idea is about to be destroyed because they don’t care. I will look at the reviews of people that do still get excited for things EA puts… Read more »
Putting the question of the comparison aside, I think the sentiment is fair. Waiting for reviews before commiting to the purchase is perfectly reasonable, word of mouth spreads like wildfire nowadays anyway.
I learned my lesson years ago by purchasing a CD with a game I’d never heard about. You can probably guess how that story ended.
You cannot have your cake and eat it, too. This comic right here is feeding the cynical attitude that pushes people to outrage.
No, when EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, anyone releases a game where there’s as much effort spend monetizing post purchase as the rest of the game that’s what pushes people to outrage. The point of this comic is that the monetization doesn’t need to exist and doesn’t need to be normal. That there’s still solid single player games that give you a complete story without sucking money from you.
The comic is cynical, but it isn’t what causes the outrage.
Sadly I fear I’ll never be able to enjoy this game fully due to the decision to model the main character directly off the actor. Shameless has ruined it for me.
Nice 😀
OK, now I want to read the rest of the definition of “Viewership” that was partially shown. There’s gotta be some shade in there about streaming-service overload.
I always get a good chuckle/laugh out of these strips but boy this one just drove deep and hit every single mark.
Even with how good it looks so far not getting it right away because EA. I’ll reevaluate in 6 months or so if they haven’t managed to do something sleazy after the fact.
Honestly if I could buy direct from the developers and be sure not one cent went to EA I’d get it right away but I really dont want to send money to EA ever agian unless they clean up their act.
lol “soul pipe” = “profit”
Alright TIM you won this time, this game looks like a Legit Good Game, but i wont support EA so this will be the 1st time in 10 years that i will actually “Miss Out” by sticking to my principles which is the most important thing, besides Death Stranding has kept me occupy for far too long ( is not for everyone i cant recommend it) so go on enjoy your GOOD STAR WARS GAME.
And then:
Loot-box: Also called “Surprise Mechanics”
A virtual slot machine designed to squeeze out as much money as possible as they try for the good shit.
One of the YouTubers I follow has been streaming it, but I had to stop because it was kind of painful how terrible they are at combat. Force powers? Blocking? Nah fam, they only know dodge and ATTACCCCCCC
Reminds me of the Amazing World of Gumball.
“Aha! Here it is! ‘Half always equals… whatever Tobias says’?!?”
So look…this is what happens when Big Business (with max corporate bean counters) meet video games. That is to say, NOTHING GOOD!