SAMUEL BURNETT
Studios President, Tony Romanelli has announced the suspension of the greatly anticipated fan-made game, Star Wars: Galaxy in Turmoil.
The game, while still only in its Alpha stage, was a planned sequel to the popular Star Wars: Battlefront franchise.
While an official sequel had been planned, it was cancelled before the project was sold to EA Games for a reboot.
As the controversial gaming company has an exclusive contract with LucasFilm on all Star Wars games (excluding those produced by LEGO), it has an effective monopoly on the brand is currently unwilling to share.
Last year, as a tie in to The Force Awakens, EA released a rebooted take on the popular third-person shooter game, EA Games’ STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT and, despite the great anticipation, it was ultimately met with a lukewarm response from both critics and fans with many criticizing the lack of offline content and the over-reliance on in game purchases.
This was unsurprising to many as EA products have suffered similar criticisms for its EA Sports games, with their release of in game content lacking that was later available to be purchased separately.
While the take down of fan made content is hardly a new phenomenon, the Galaxy in Turmoil project had the illusion of legitimacy as the digital distribution company, Steam had only last month announced that it would distribute the game upon its release.
In addition, as revealed by Romanelli, even LucasFilms seemed interested by the idea but despite an attempt to put in under EA’s paywall, the gaming giant ultimately decided that it did not wish for “distracting” competition.
“EA has a right to protect its intellectual property and investments,” a company spokesperson said, when asked, diverting all other inquiries to the company’s media page.
