Star Wars video games haven’t exactly seen a lot of positive releases in the last few years aside from the Knights of the Old Republic titles and the occasional MMO. This is probably why LucasArts is no longer in charge of making new ones. However, with Electronic Arts now in control of all games in the Star Wars franchise, they need to get themselves out of the routine of being the worst company in America. EA is planning to take those games in a familiar yet new direction.
EA is planning to model the future Star Wars video games after Rocksteady’s flagship Batman: Arkham series. While the combat style might feasibly make its way into group lightsaber battles, it’s more the storytelling style they are going for.
EA to approach Star Wars games similar to how Warner Bros. approached Batman Arkham, says… http://t.co/Ny2jIMr1fz
— VG247 (@VG247) March 24, 2014
Where the Batman: Arkham series took its storyline from the comics, it didn’t directly stick with the canon as much as refer to it. After all, it doesn’t seem likely that DC Comics would have the Joker using some kind of monster-level steroids like he did at the end of Arkham Asylum . That seemed to be the part nobody liked about the first game anyway, and Rocksteady turned the side effects of that drug into the main plot of Arkham City . However, Rocksteady didn’t base the Titan drug on anything from the comics or movies.
Electronic Arts is planning to take a similar approach with the Star Wars video games: They aren’t going to base them on the movies or any other media, but they might put in an occasional reference to them.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson told the media:
“What Warner Bros. did with [the Batman: Arkham series] was take the core roots of that IP and manifest that inside the walls of Gotham City and delivered an interactive experience that had real ties to what you would see in the films and what you had read in the comics, while having its own life because it could provide such deep and more immersive storylines. When we look at the Star Wars properties that’s how we’re looking at it. We’re not trying to build a game that replicates the storyline of any particular film.”
If you’re looking for a cheap beat-em-up among the upcoming Star Wars video games, you might be disappointed. However, Electronic Arts’ adaptation of a major aspect from what has been considered the best super hero game series of all time shows that they’re trying to turn future games into something more than just fan fare.
EA may just turn their reputation around if they can pull it off.