Well, let's see just how much they care. If they do revoke the license, then your assertions are correct and mine are wrong. And full disclosure, I own Disney stocks.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Petition Wants Lucasfilm to Revoke EA’s Star Wars License (Update: 150,000 signatures passed)
- Thread starter Deleted member 21220
- Start date
- Status
Well, let's see just how much they care. If they do revoke the license, then your assertions are correct and mine are wrong. And full disclosure, I own Disney stocks.
Well, Lego's rights are different considering rival companies produce hundreds of different Star Wars toys a year.
Even if Disney cared in the slightest about the petition, the contract probably has extraordinarily high penalties for Disney if they wanted to terminate it early.
They have to have people from Lucasfilm involved in everything. Have you not actually read anything from the people working on the projects?
They aren't that different. They each operate in their own segment of the market. MegaBloks can't produce Star Wars sets, and Lego's license contract likely spells this out.
They should let Platinum make a Star Wars game. Platinum would finally be guaranteed a smash-hit title, and it'd probably be kick-ass.
I'm fine either way as I will buy BF2 deeply discounted to gawk at the visuals but have otherwise no interest in playing or grinding in that game. I'm not too concerned about being right in this case and I am fine to admit being wrong.
It's fun to just talk about strategy from both sides and speculate. As I noted upthread, if anything will happen it will be in 2018 when The Last Jedi has finished its theatrical run and chances of bad press for the movie is minimzied. Doing anything now will just look like Disney/Lucasfilm is in panic mode and engaging in damage control. It makes them look weak. The bed is made, they can't really unmake it outside of telling EA to hold off the lootbox based progression, for now.
They will do it later in a time of their choosing.
They work on something else?
Respawn is in the process of making a new IP, some of the staff could migrate there while a small team can bring in pitches to EA.
Disney had all the power when that deal was being signed, I don't see how EA could even impose such a thing. It's more likely that Disney had some clauses to allow them to end the contract.
I see this said by a select few. And goodness I hope not (it won't happen exclusively).
Which world do you live in where $100b companies sign the contract where another party can just bail leaving them not only empty handed, but also many millions of development investments down the drain? Does EA not have any lawyers? It is equally likely that Disney was eager to find a large partner for SW games because their own huge project failed and Disney didn't have many candidates to produce AAA games in time for movies.
Besides all the crap on lootboxes , i think that EA wasted the license with a common FPS .
A single player game like Shadow Of War would have worked .
A single player game like Shadow Of War would have worked .
A Shadow of War themed Star Wars game would have been great.
Disney could find many over publisher who would want to have the Star Wars IP while EA would not be able to find such a strong IP with a history in gaming as big as Star Wars. EA would need to make some concession like ending the partnership if the metascore is too low or if there's not enough revenue.
Do you believe that Disney didn't put a clause in case EA was not bringing enough money?
I can't wait for the Kotaku expose on this whole thing.
Would also be hilarious if this whole thing only blew up because EA was trying to maximize their share of the profits because lootbox revenue was something Disney forgot to/didn't care enough to include in the contract 4 years ago.
I could see Disney taking a huge chunk of the front end revenue, ie: EA makes no money upfront from the $60 game. It's in keeping with how they treat theatres demanding a higher than normal share of the first several weeks of film revenues. This minimizes risk for Disney and they get their returns upfront.
So EA's solution to such a lopsided contract was to monetize the backend. Explains the weird launch of BF1 with a $50 DLC to complete a shell of a game.
Would also be hilarious if this whole thing only blew up because EA was trying to maximize their share of the profits because lootbox revenue was something Disney forgot to/didn't care enough to include in the contract 4 years ago.
I could see Disney taking a huge chunk of the front end revenue, ie: EA makes no money upfront from the $60 game. It's in keeping with how they treat theatres demanding a higher than normal share of the first several weeks of film revenues. This minimizes risk for Disney and they get their returns upfront.
So EA's solution to such a lopsided contract was to monetize the backend. Explains the weird launch of BF1 with a $50 DLC to complete a shell of a game.
Best case scenario would be to send Disney a message to not renew their license with EA once this expires.
Literally the only time I have seen a Change.org petition work was when the White House/Obama responded to the petition asking him to build a Death Star.
I'm pessimistic as well but that reddit downvote campaign got noticed by the media. That's all that matters. Media reporting it will put pressure on Lucasfilm and Disney. EA doesn't care obviously.
The petition is a nice but silly gesture. The best way to "petition" would be to buy games other than Battlefront 2 this holiday season.
I believe there are sales targets that EA has to hit, but the success of both Battlefront I and Galaxy of Heroes is too great for one lower selling title to sink the partnership. It is still going to outsell many other games this fall and it should be profitable.
You should give me some of those publishers who are ready to take on Star Wars IP, because EA throw everything they had at Star Wars: DICE, Respawn, Motive, Criterion, Visceral, mobile studios and hired the star designers/producers for those projects.
Well they killed one of those studios and launching half completed games doesn't look like throwing everything at it.
Disney's not going to do something like this. The BF2 situation has been straining for both EA and Disney, but I'd wager it's still making a comfortable sum of money, which is only going to go into overdrive with the one-two punch of The Last Jedi's release and Christmas. Expect microtransactions to make a return around that time, damn whatever consequence.
(Also, you know, there's other SW games being worked on at EA and this would effectively screw them too. The loss of Star Wars 1313 stings badly enough...)
Realistically, the best-case scenario here is that Disney chooses not to renew the contract when time's up. And honestly, I don't even see this outcome as the most likely one.
(Also, you know, there's other SW games being worked on at EA and this would effectively screw them too. The loss of Star Wars 1313 stings badly enough...)
Realistically, the best-case scenario here is that Disney chooses not to renew the contract when time's up. And honestly, I don't even see this outcome as the most likely one.
Sure, its possible, but i dont think Lucasfilms need a petition to do or see that. This petition, at least the way i understand it, seems to be aimed towards Lucasfilms, trying to make them understand that EA could hurt the Star Wars franchise, but thats not really the case since Lucasfilms should be well aware of all of this (seeing how they had weekly meetings with EA).
Battlefront 2015 shipped 14 million copies in under 6 months. Why do you claim that there are no success stories?
Respawn and Motive are new studio, while Criterion is a support studio now. Viceral and DICE are the only important studio EA threw at the franchise. We can also say now that Viceral wasn't that important since they're dead now. EA had the chance to have plenty of studio and not much IPs to work with but the same could be said for Activision and Ubisoft. Ubisoft is already showing their interest in those kind of deal with Avatar for example. I'm sure if Star Wars was available they would jump on the occasion.
As for mobile games, EA isn't the only one able to develop games around the IP.
TBH I kinda see this happening organically anyway. Battlefront I was a success, but its significant lack of launch content lost the BF series some goodwill. Goodwill that should have been easily regained with BF II, until the microtransaction debacle sank that ship and did significantly more harm. A potential BFIII would have a massive handicap against it at this point. More importantly, BF seems to be the only damn games EA can even put out, as in all this time these are the only two games that EA released, with a major, high profile cancelation upsetting a lot of fans.
Between the poor press, lack of titles, and continued harm EA is doing to the label, despite the successes of the two games, nothing about this deal is looking good to Lucasfilm right now. I mean, if fucking Bob Iger has to step in, you already know relationships are strained between EA and Disney/Lucas right now.
Between the poor press, lack of titles, and continued harm EA is doing to the label, despite the successes of the two games, nothing about this deal is looking good to Lucasfilm right now. I mean, if fucking Bob Iger has to step in, you already know relationships are strained between EA and Disney/Lucas right now.
I'm not Disney so the shipped figure may be enough. When I say no success stories, I'm thinking fan reaction, metacritic score in the middle and low 70s accross all platforms, and the only mention of Battlefront 2015 in their 2016 financials was that it was only able to partially offset a fall in gaming revenues which still fell for the year. Licensing (non games) revenues were up though.
So It's possible 14m is enough for Disney, but I don't think battlefront revenue on its own its all that important to Disney. The brand, and the fact that they have all the leverage is what matters more and I don't think EA has done Star Wars brand any favors. I could be wrong of course and Disney may be ecstatic behind the scenes that EA is going to make bank on lootboxes, but I highly doubt it. Consumer products and Interactive media is one of their segments, of which games is just a part of their licensing revenue. It's peanuts as I said.
If I were Ubisoft or Sony I wouldn't want to touch Star Wars with a ten foot pole. Dealing with Disney and Lucasfilm sounds awful. Not worth the pressure or royalties they'd have to pay, IMO.
So stupid to give it to one developer in the first place.
Star Wars comes back, it's massive and we get two middling shooters to show for it. By the time this new trilogy is over, in 2019 I think? We may only have one good Star Wars game, as long as Respawn delivers and it's out by then of course, no pressure! What a missed opportunity.
Star Wars comes back, it's massive and we get two middling shooters to show for it. By the time this new trilogy is over, in 2019 I think? We may only have one good Star Wars game, as long as Respawn delivers and it's out by then of course, no pressure! What a missed opportunity.
Battlefront is easily the most successful videogame expression of Star Wars ever made, so to say it hasn't done the brand any favors is almost to say that no game has done the brand any favors.
The main leverage that EA has is that they have entered into a binding legal contract with Disney/Lucas, and that contract can't be dissolved without a lawsuit or a hefty buyout. Beyond that, there's the issue that nobody else is working on a AAA Star Wars game so even if production started tomorrow it would be 2020 or 2021 at best before a new title could be published by someone else......so severing ties with EA basically kills Star Wars videogames for several years, even assuming EA doesn't fight tooth & nail to keep their exclusivity. It makes more sense to double their efforts with EA than it does to dump them and basically have no games to go along with the next 2-3 films.
Giving EA the axe would also likely be the death of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm not even sure if the economics even exist to build another game like that, but even if the will was there it might take 4-5 years. As is, SWTOR isn't setting the world on fire but it's a reliable source of mostly passive income and it drives engagement with hardcore fans.
That's a fair point.
But backtracking a bit, someone who has worked with Disney licensing did say Disney tend to craft these things in their favour. There will be no shortage of publishers or even platform holders who can make Star Wars games, but EA will be hard pressed to find another Star Wars currently. So Disney has all the leverage.
As for what happens to EA/Star Wars in the event Disney decides to pull the exclusivity or not renew, my original thought is EA gets to keep some of it, while Disney shops the licenses to make other Star Wars games to other studios. But I get the impression all is not well behind the scenes and even that may be at risk.
EA I think will try to keep the license. They want it to be their Madden or FIFA for their movie licenses and corner the market. In normal times, Disney/Lucasfilm could probably be swayed by cash, but I think (and this is only my opinion) things have moved beyond that now and Lucasfilm will look to dissolve the exclusivity eventually because I think while Disney corporate may be apethetic, I have a hard time believing Kathleen Kennedy is ok with this. She's uber protective of the brand and she's the one who gutted lucas's story treatments of 7-9 and rebooted the franchise over George's objections as we all saw in the fallout interview with Charlie Rose, so she's very capable of anything.
All of this is just my speculating and talking of course. If I'm wrong about this, I'm wrong. Will be glad to own up to it.
Thanks for the discussion.
Not really sure, that EA caused this mess alone. I am fairly sure that if the licence gets revoked, it will ended up in hands some company like Activision or any other "good" company like that. I think that Battlefront is a travesty, but I don't see this being a solution, especially after all of those articles about LucasArt having a pretty big influence on the whole project. I am torn on this, I am sure they received the message and hopefully low sales, that alone has much more influence than some petition. And the lost like 3 billion dollars in stock value, if I am not mistaken, I am sure that this will do, without needing to be an internet warrior fighting for franchize which has been done to death already. It's time to move on.
Unless somebody has also dealt with EA licensing I don't think you can reasonably say how favorable the terms of the contract are to each party. If Disney/Lucas want an exclusive license holder capable of turning out AAA games on a semi-annual basis, there probably aren't a lot of third parties that can fulfill that end of the bargain. Single-platform holders do not reach a wide enough audience, so Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft are kind of off the table. Which leaves you with a choice between Activision, Ubisoft, and EA. Disney might have a heavy hand with toy and merch licensing, but that's because there's a million people willing to make that stuff in mass quantities. Choices are slimmer in gaming.
I think what also gets discounted is that Star Wars is only considered a heavy-hitter IP in the wake of something like Battlefront selling 14M copies despite a lukewarm critical reception. At the time EA negotiated their deal, Star Wars was not a very strong gaming IP. The Force Unleashed got a huge budget and a huge push but didn't sell half as many copies as Battlefront. To this day major publishers are still somewhat wary of licensed properties. I don't think EA got a sweetheart deal or anything, but the leverage you're talking about wasn't really solidified until Force Awakens and Battlefront released. I have my doubts that the exclusivity contract contains some kind of "Get Out of Jail Free" clause that lets Disney drop EA without any repercussion. No decent lawyer or executive would remotely stand for that.
I think what motivated Disney to go with EA is what will motivate them to keep EA. Disney does not want to destroy SWTOR, and EA can turn out products on a regular schedule with big production values. Whatever deal Disney has with EA they likely will not get with Ubisoft or Activision. Those publishers probably don't see a need or a desire to divert resources from their core IPs like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Destiny, FarCry, Overwatch, Warcraft, etc. Those franchises sell 10M copies easily and Activision/Ubi don't have to share the profits with Disney. Part of what drives the EA/Disney relationship is that they need each other. Ubi and Activision would probably like to publish Star Wars games, but not on the terms Disney wants to offer.
Like I said previously, if Disney burns the shit out of EA, how can they possibly negotiate favorable terms with someone else? They'd almost have to go back to the ad-hoc piecemeal licensing scheme they used to have with Star Wars, because nobody is going to pay for Star Wars exclusivity if there's evidence that Disney is just going to abandon them when the road gets a little bumpy. The fact that they have leverage over EA is all the more reason to keep them around, because they aren't going to get that kind of leverage with another AAA publisher.
Last edited:
Is Battlefront 2 doing quite well sales wise? I always see multiple copies of it, especially on Black Friday, when I check the stores while other titles are either sold out or hard to find.
Though it might just be a case of EA actually giving put sufficient amounts of stock.
Though it might just be a case of EA actually giving put sufficient amounts of stock.
EA should just release a public mea culpa, remove the loot boxes entirely, refund the cash of anyone who bought them and release a few pieces of free DLC to assuage the anger of the masses.
The shame is that there's much to like about this game but it's being buried under the weight of this controversy.
The shame is that there's much to like about this game but it's being buried under the weight of this controversy.
Is there a petition to sign to get EA lifetime rights for Star Wars ? Or better yet let MS get the rights?
Looking at EA in a completely neutral light, their practice of obtaining exclusive rights to things has done more damage to the industry than anything good. Best example is what it did to sports games. They made the worst reviewed American football games in the industry yet had more money so of course they got their way.
- Status