And the license goes to...

EA will now be printing their own form of currency in the shape of Star Wars games. This week Disney gave the official announcement that Electronic Arts will be receiving exclusive rights to publish Star Wars branded games (Though that will not include mobile platforms.). I have been sitting on this to think about what it could end up really meaning to this franchise's games. One thing is that some of the best Star Wars games of recent memory came not from LucasArts but licensing deals; the biggie being Knights of the Old Republic which came out of BioWare the same developer that has a very cozy relationship with EA already. From what has already been said DICE and Visceral will be joining BioWare to make new games in a galaxy far far EA...

As to what I think about this whole move of Star Wars over to the "Worst Company" in America , I don't know. It is always exciting to play a Star Wars game, because I love that universe they inhabit as many others do; it is just hard to say what EA will have in store for the brand. Their trend in the last several years is to push everything to the center of the stream for the sake of sales. The example I think of as analogous to this is Mass Effect, specifically because I consider the first in the series to be real spiritual successor to
Knights of the Old Republic (Because the actual sequel didn't do much to build on the accomplishments of the predecessor.Yes, yes I am a blasphemer and should be burned at the stake; Not important right now.)  The trouble is that I think EA pushed BioWare to turn their brilliant action RPG into a shooter with some RPG elements by the end of the trilogy, and that bums me the hell out despite enjoying the series as a whole (Yes you people can burn me too.). The same thing has happened to Dead Space which started as horror game, but now has moved to a buddy cop shooter and not very scary one at that.

In All Honesty... I don't trust Darth Mickey and the Disney Empire yet. [Editorial]

          Recently various Disney employees have been making statements about the future of the Star Wars franchise and some of it has been pretty nerve racking. This largely concerns the release of  SW brand films every summer from 2015-2021. I know George Lucas was no one's favorite, but I am kinda getting the whole meaning behind the "better the devil you know..." Disney is still a wildcard for me; they have done cool things with Marvel (Okay Iron Man 2 was kinda weak, and I really don't know what the freaking purpose of NOW was), but Star Wars isn't Marvel.  They are two very different kinds of franchise. The frantic pace at which Marvel movies come out is great since it follows the format that the weekly issue does, granted on a yearly scale since movies take more time to produce. Last year we had The Avengers [issue 1]; this one Iron-Man [issue] 3 and Thor
[issue] 2; next year Captain America [issue] 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy [issue 1]. I do not think the same format is the best idea when it comes to Star Wars. Part of the original influence for Lucas when he was creating his monolith was the sci-fi serials of the 50's (specifically Flash Gordon which was the movie he wanted to make but couldn't get the rights to)  which really play on the the use of cliffhangers.  The film that echos this the most being Empire Strikes Back, which also happens to be the most beloved of the original trilogy. Having a episode released on the reg, along with spin-off films just seems out of place.  Where is the build up and the excitement, Disney? Hell, there has been four years between the new Star Trek films (my feelings on JJ Abrams at the helm of Star Wars are still not soaring) and people, myself included, are still clamoring to see 'Into Darkness' and in the interim fans have spent those years eagerly wondering what the film would have in store for them.  I don't want to see the Star Wars pimped out anymore than it already has, especially when it comes to films, the medium that the brand was born in.