With the overwhelmingly great reception to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order kicking in, a lot of people seem to be focusing their compliments, support and feedback at EA, instead of Respawn Entertainment who actually worked effortlessly to give us a genuine Star Wars experience. Having only played the game briefly, I won’t be speaking about it much, but I want to instead turn my attention to Respawn’s efforts in making this game.
The Titan’fall’
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was in development for a lengthy amount of time, having officially been announced back on May 4, 2016. Immediately, this date alone puts things into perspective that Respawn Entertainment was very serious about making an authentic experience.
Instead of rushing the game and using the behemoth popularity of a decades old franchise, Respawn wanted to take their time to flesh out a game they can be proud of while ensuring that fans would appreciate the end product.
However, while Respawn Entertainment was busy working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, we shouldn’t forget that the same year saw the release of Titanfall 2. A major success critically but ultimately had low sales. This was, however, due to the two other games that were released within the same window.
Those games were Battlefield 1 and Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare. See, unfortunately for Respawn Entertainment, EA cared and focused more on ensuring they hurt the release of CoD: IW, and so they wanted to release two FPS games that attracted different audiences, instead of releasing Titanfall 2 at a time that would’ve greatly benefited the game.
Lead producer at Respawn Entertainment had an interview with PlayStation Lifestyle back in October 2016 where he even states that he was kept in the dark about the release date that was chosen for Titanfall 2.
I actually don’t know where the decision came from. I just know that it was locked in a long time ago and there was no changing it.
At the time, Cowen & Company’s statement had pretty much summarised the situation pretty well. They said, “We suspect EA believed that by launching two shooters next to Call of Duty it could put a large dent in its biggest competitor, but instead EA appears to have wound up shooting its own foot off.”
EA’s Little Brother
It was clear that EA never really cared about Titanfall 2, instead of seeing it as an opportunity to hurt COD by releasing two FPS games at the same time. The truth is, Titanfall has never been a household title, and it truly hurt the release of Titanfall 2 when EA decided to release the game among two of the biggest titles in 2016.
What’s this all got to do with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order? Well, let’s get into that now. I’ve seen a lot of reviewers, critics and gamers, in general, praising EA for “making” a stellar game. YouTubers like Laymen Gaming releasing a video where they appreciate EA’s “efforts” for a solid five minutes of their six-minute video and only briefly mention that Respawn has done a good job.
Usually, I love Laymen Gaming because both of them tend to speak and help their audience understand the facts. The title (25 Minutes Of Jedi Fallen Order Has Us Saying EA Good) of their video alone is upsetting to see because Respawn Entertainment clearly put their all in, and it needs to be clarified that it’s them that are deserving of credit, not EA.
However, it’s not just Laymen Gaming, even journalism sites like Business Insider released an article with a title that, again, puts EA in a good light when it should be Respawn.
The problem with all this isn’t just that EA is receiving the appreciation that should be going to Respawn. The problem resides in the fact that EA had its chance to make solid Star Wars games before Respawn Entertainment got involved.
However, EA was too focused on monetisation with both Battlefront games, resulting in extremely disappointing titles. Unlike Respawn Entertainment, EA wanted to capitalise on the popularity of Star Wars rather than making an excellent game.
The other problem with this is that Respawn Entertainment, for the most part, are only now beginning to grow. Before making Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order or Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment was known only for Titanfall.
The current state of Triple-A developers in the gaming industry right now leaves little to be desired as most devs are interested in monetisation and how to make as much money as they can from one product, instead of focusing on giving a fantastic experience.
However, with growing developers like Respawn Entertainment, Insomniac, Ninja Theory, and more focusing on the quality of their games, Triple-A developers will begin to understand what consumers want.
Let us know down in the comments if you’ve been playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and what your thoughts on it are!
