There was a time, distant though it may be, when Electronic Arts was considered one of the most prominent game publishers of the day; a true pioneer of fun and exciting gaming content, with titles like Dead Space, Need for Speed, and Burnout. One of the things that most of those games had it common was their focus on single player content, and being complete package on the day of release. Both of those are hard to come by with EA games these days, and people have been mercilessly ridiculing the publisher for that very reason.
Most of EA’s recent productions have included multiplayer focused games that were designed to be cash crops more so than entertaining video games. Culminating in a pay-to-win loot box travesty that greatly hindered Battlefront II in 2017, it was clear to all that EA’s era of great games was behind them. Their name caused a surge of bile in the throat of most gamers, being associated with greed and terrible practices. However, EA’s desire for a profit isn’t all bad; the fact that they want to make money is exactly why they might see the error of their ways and actually be compelled to do something about them.
Star Wars: Fallen Order, could be EA’s redemption; it’s fully single player experience, with no lazily added multiplayer modes, and no content to purchase after the fact. It’s the first single player game EA has done in quite a long while, and it will be a complete, full game on the day of its release. This could be the makings of a real change in EA’s strategy, and most players will likely agree that it is a welcome one.
Of course, it wouldn’t pay to assume that everything is going to turn out great right off the bat. After, looking promising and delivering on that promise are two very different things. If Fallen Order came out and ended up being lackluster or another EA catastrophe, it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise. You never know what the game will be like until the day you actually get to play it yourself.
That said, the game does indeed look promising thus far, at least based on the gameplay footage and commentary that came from people who played the game early. With an actual noteworthy narrative, single player focus, and a distinct lack of all the things that hampered more recent EA titles, Fallen Order could be the 180 we all wanted from the company.
That said, we still have just over two weeks before the game actually comes out, so the first impression a few people got from playing the game early doesn’t guarantee that things won’t change before then. It is unlikely that anything major will be changed in that small time frame, but that doesn’t say anything about what EA could do to the game once it is actually released. Some time after its launch, they could decide to add in some sort of micro transaction (for what, who knows?) or DLC. Of course, for a single player experience, DLC could amount to actual in-game expansions for the story mode, so that part might not be all bad.
Oddly enough, EA might not be the only publisher that is finally steering away from its crippling past deficiencies. Recently it seems that Activision and Ubisoft, two other major offenders of the ‘micro transaction cash crop’ may also be learning the error of their ways, though it is unclear if they took a cue from EA or if everyone simply wised up at the same time.
Either way, one simple fact remains; everyone that loves Star Wars want Fallen Order to be and do good. Avid gamers would like for the game to be a milestone for EA in returning to its roots as a trusted publisher of games that are a complete package on the day that they are released, a publisher that actually values quality over saturation and potential income.
Make no mistake, money is the bottom line of every game produced, but just because something is designed to be profitable doesn’t mean it has to be ruined by greed. If Fallen Order is what the fans want, it’s what they will pay for. And if it does go well, hopefully that means we’ll get more of these types of games in the future, and less of the EA titles of the past that was such an irritant for so many players.
But to find out if any of that will actually happen, we have to wait until mid-November, and even then the game will probably need to be out for awhile before any fair judgment can be made. That said, for now all we can do is cross our fingers and hope Electronic Arts has finally learned their lesson and earned their redemption.
