Recently, there has been a lot of shocking news about companies reducing staff and games being canceled, one of which being The Mandalorian game that was being developed by EA, which has now been unfortunately canceled, but not for the reasons you think.
When it comes to game development, there can be many different reasons for a game to get the axe, whether it be poor management skills, a lack of interest from the developers, or no money in the budget to continue the project, but according to an insider, the real reason is even more severe.
According to an Insider, Disney’s Focus On Profit Is the Reason Why the Mandalorian Game Has Been Cancelled
This news comes from a YouTuber known as Star Wars Theory, in which they discuss a recent leak from an insider whom they chose not to name regarding the future of EA and its deal with Disney to continue creating games.
According to this insider, due to EA’s exclusivity deal finally coming to an end with Disney regarding the Star Wars IP, a new deal was drawn up that benefited Disney more than the original deal did, leading to The Mandalorian game and potential future projects being canceled.
Originally, the new licensing agreement would ask for 22% of the profits for Disney on any Star Wars games that were developed by EA, but now this agreement has been changed to further the profits from that previously agreed-upon percentage to 33%.
Due to this percentage increase, it is completely understandable that development companies like EA would feel cheated by this decision, as it will begin to lose profits itself as it was able to manage with the original 22% agreement but not the new agreement.
Could This Be the End of Star Wars in the Gaming Industry, or Could We See a Return in the Future?
So far, Star Wars has had a rather poor track record in terms of games; for every 2 games that are released, at least one game is canceled, leading us to be concerned about the future of the franchise in terms of gaming.
This is because EA is a big developer who has been working on numerous Star Wars projects for many years, and if Disney continues to change their licensing agreements to the point where it benefits them over the developer, it will eventually cause companies to cancel their agreements with Disney.
If this does happen, we will soon be looking at Disney working solely with Epic Games, a company that Disney has currently bought shares in and also utilizes its Unreal Engine in numerous projects, leading to even more projects heading to Epic Games rather than developers like EA.
What do you think about Disney changing the licensing agreement with EA? Do you think EA will cancel even more Star Wars games due to this agreement? Let us know what you think in the comments!
