Rumor: Disney/LucasFilm considering giving the Star Wars license to new game developers
Quote:
Since EA acquired the exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games back in 2013, the publisher hasn’t done a lot of good with it. So far, we’ve had two questionable Battlefront games and one cancelled single-player project. Now it seems that the backlash to Battlefront II may have been so bad that it has sent Disney/Lucasfilm into the arms of other game publishers.
This week, a report popped up on Cinelinx, who claim to have a source familiar with what’s going on. From what they’ve heard, Lucasfilm and Disney are upset about not just the fallout from Battlefront II, but also the cancellation of Visceral’s Star Wars game, which fans were very excited about. After these events, Lucasfilm executives reportedly met with EA’s heads to discuss things, but even so, the company has also apparently reached out to Ubisoft and Activision about a potential licensing deal.
EA currently holds an exclusivity contract for Star Wars video games. Supposedly, this contract contains a clause that would allow Disney to retract it if certain standards aren’t met.
Even if Lucasfilm is discussing licensing with other major publishers, that doesn’t necessarily mean that EA will lose the Star Wars license any time soon. It would likely take a long and tricky legal process to get the ball rolling and then if the license was handed over to another publisher, it would take quite some time for them to get new projects up and running.
As always when it comes to anonymous sources, this should be taken with a pinch of salt. However, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think that other options are being considered after the drama back in November.
Ubisoft has stated they have four AAA games releasing next fiscal year (April 2018 - March 2019).
Known titles:
- The Crew 2
- Skull & Bones
Notes:
Most of these notes are about titles that aren't going to come out in this time period, so we should guess other things, with a couple exceptions.
Ubisoft has heavily hinted that Assassin's Creed is not getting a new game this year, and instead there will more "amazing" new DLC for Origins.
Yves implied that he was still taking concept pitches for Splinter Cell maybe a year or so ago, so that doesn't seem super likely.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 doesn't look like it's on track to release this generation.
Ghost Recon, South Park, and Far Cry just came out.
Rainbow Six and For Honor are near endless service games that won't be getting sequels for ages.
This also seems to be true for Steep, at least thus far, but it's hard to say. I would probably expect at least a three year gap though a la The Crew 2 and The Division 2, so it would be a bit early for a Steep sequel.
There will be a third year for The Division, but it doesn't necessarily sound like a huge amount of content is coming, especially compared to the amount of staff working on The Division.
Watch Dogs 2 hasn't been updated in a while.
Ubisoft excepts to sell something like 23 million units total.
The game Ubisoft delayed out of the fiscal year was expected to move 4-5 million units, which would be notably less than either Watch Dogs 2 or The Division shipped at launch.
Ubisoft said Avatar isn't expected to release until the second movie.
Ubisoft generally doesn't count things like Rabbids, Trials, Rayman, or Just Dance as AAA titles.
My guesses would be Watch Dogs 3 and The Division 2. Feel free to throw out guesses.
Also, here's the teaser for Assassin's Creed's "amazing" unannounced DLC releases:
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Essentially, Ubisoft has done the math and determined that long-lasting games are a better investment than annual flashes in the proverbial pan. Even for games that are primarily single-player, like Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft is not necessarily looking to jump ahead to the next major release.
“We are concentrating on Assassin’s Creed: Origins for which we are going to launch a few other DLCs,” Guillemot told investors during a conference call. “You will be amazed by what will come on Origins, so that’s the only thing we can say for now.”
Far Cry 5 Producer to Lead New Ubisoft Studio in Winnipeg The studio will focus on research and development for open-world games.
Quote:
In addition to Ubisoft Odesa and Ubisoft Mumbai, Ubisoft has opened its third new studio in the past few weeks.
The new studio, Ubisoft Winnipeg, will be headed up by Far Cry 5 producer Darryl Long. "There's a very specific and complementary mandate for the studio, which is that we want to contribute to the development of the big AAA brands--like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs--specifically in the area of building open worlds," Long told GamesIndustry.biz.
Ubisoft is planning to have a team of 100 at the freshly-minted Canadian studio within the next five years.
Ubisoft Winnipeg will be a studio focused on making Ubisoft's open-world games better. "Our goal in Winnipeg is to do the research and development on the processes, the pipeline and the tools, to put the investment in to making them as efficient as possible, and ultimately increase the quality of the open worlds we're producing for our games," Long explained. "So we'll be working hand-in-hand with the other Canadian studios to develop their AAA brands, and specifically their open worlds."
In March, Ubisoft opened studios in Mumbai, India and Odesa, Ukraine. In addition, the publisher purchased Brawlhalla developer Blue Mammoth Games.
Four old men in tight leather suits...eh, why not.
Unless this is going to be about Sam's replacement and him being in some mentor role or something, who knows really.
...Open world grab ALL the leather attachments.
(GIMP-a-character customization.)
Eh doubt they'd do open world for this, multiplayer via some echelon 4-vs-4 leather-wars online competitive play though that could be their avenue for online.
(And micro transactions.)
Well let's see what they'll show I guess, might be a overhaul of the franchise but for the worse of for the better. (Yeah right, as if it could rival the original installments.)
EDIT: Just don't stick too much of Wildlands or Tom Clancy's Dead So We're Doing Whatever to the Franchise: Ghost Recon in general.
Don't need some cloak field or auto aim drone removing all challenge.
EDIT: AND LOSE THE CHILD ISSUE IF YOU CAN'T LOSE THE BEARD!!!
(No more deadly dads please, it works in some games based on narrative but there are other archetypes besides cuddly-hairy-bear daddy goes slaying with his kid.)
(Granted Sam has a daughter by canon so eh, might be some of that in here.)
Last edited by JBeckman on Thu, 24th May 2018 20:52; edited 3 times in total
Careful what you wish for - the "surprise" may be that they make the prince into a eunuch to gain brownie points in being open and inviting to the LGBTQXYZ community!
I can never be free, because the shackles I wear can't be touched or be seen.
i9-9900k, MSI MPG-Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon, 32GB DDR4 @ 3000, eVGA GTX 1080 DT, Samsung 970 EVO Plus nVME 1TB
Careful what you wish for - the "surprise" may be that they make the prince into a eunuch to gain brownie points in being open and inviting to the LGBTQXYZ community!
Aww no more hoarding, have to spend these on gimmick in-game items of minor use.
Ah they'll need to add a notice on how many points they'll be removing with this timed shite.
Yeah I kept quite a few on hand for more useful rewards though I don't think any of them are 2017 or earlier at least but it's a weird change for whatever reason.
Unless they're going for more discount promos and are trying to stop people hoarding these UCoins for that specific purpose which that's what I'm thinking it might be.
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at 
gtfo you Multiplayer whore
