Although they aren't officially part of E3, Electronic Arts (EA) decided to put on a press conference June 12 to show off their upcoming lineup of games. Long story short, it was upsetting.</p>
I don't know why I put myself through this pain and suffering each and every year. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment, a masochist at heart or slowly going insane. That’s the only explanation for why I watch EA executives and developers obnoxiously yap at a crowd of uninterested journalists for one whole hour. One whole hour wasted watching gums flap and little to no actual video games shown. It's a sad existence indeed.
What makes matters worse is how EA decided to handle their Star Wars license. Star Wars is THE hottest franchise on the planet and EA did absolutely nothing to show us anything new coming from partnership. They blabbered on for three minutes about how important Star Wars is to EA and then showed a stupid two-minute video that had various game designers saying the exact same thing. What was the point? Because all EA did was leave me and a million others enraged.
How does a company of EA's size and experience squander the biggest property in entertainment today? How do they not have anything concrete to show or tell about any possible Star Wars title after three years with the license? I expect that showing the first year with the license, not the third. It's embarrassing and EA should be ashamed for their complete lack of effort.
“But Andrew, EA has given us Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. What more do you want?”
Considering Battlefront is incomplete, The Old Republic wasn't good until they added a primarily single-player story expansion, and nobody knew about Galaxy of Heroes until EA mentioned it at their E3 presser, their track record with the Star Wars license is questionable at best. Add in the fact that EA spent more time highlighting FIFA 17's story mode — a story for a soccer game — than on the whole of Star Wars and it really shows you what EA thinks of one of their best selling franchises.
No matter the publisher, I love to support good video games. EA is making it very hard to support them. They just take the properties that I love like Star Wars and Mass Effect and give them no respect all the while shoving their Call of Duty knock-offs and litany of sports games down our collective throats.
If EA is not going to show any respect for the franchises we love and support, why should we support them? Because I'm done with this abusive relationship.
