Jedi: Fallen Order's success changed how EA makes Star Wars games

Jedi: Fallen Order's performance surprised EA, and now the publisher is open to a wider scope of Star Wars games instead of just online live service titles.

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Jedi: Fallen Order is doing so well that it's changed how EA is approaching Star Wars games. Well, Respawn's singleplayer Jedi fantasy isn't singehandedly responsible for this shift--Battlefront II's massive lootbox controversy helped grab EA's attention--but the game's tremendous sales reception is turning EA's head. The publisher originally expected Jedi: Fallen Order to sell between 6-8 million copies by March 2020, but the game's already beaten that forecast, so they've raised it to 10 million.

Now EA says they're looking to explore the full spectrum of Star Wars gaming experiences, which is PR-speak for "we're open to making more singleplayer experiences."

During EA's Q3'2020 earnings call, company CEO Andrew Wilson delivered a lengthy explanation on the publisher's future plans for Star Wars.

"Part of the reason we have this great depth and breadth in our portfolio is because as the playerbase continues to grow, so do their motivations. When we think about making games, we think about the motivations on why people want to play: Inspiration, escape, social connection, creation, self-improvement, all these types of things. As we start to look at the broader playerbase and think about each of these parts within that, we're looking to build experiences that satisfy their needs and motivations."

"What we've come to understand, particularly with Star Wars, is that it has a really, really big fan base. While social interaction, competition, and multiplayer is really important for a large portion of that fan base, what we have seen through the last quarter is also that inspiration and escape model is too, that living the Jedi journey, the Jedi story.

"As we think about this on a going-forward basis, you should imagine that we will continue with the breadth and depth across the IP in order to meet the needs and motivations of that broad playerbase."

EA is expected to make good on these assertions by releasing Jedi: Fallen Order 2 at some point, possibly as part of Fiscal Year 2021's mighty 8-game release slate.

Other Star Wars games include EA Motive's new unannounced project, which has been in development for years and promises to be "very unique."

Meanwhile on the live services front, we could see Battlefront II carry on for another year or two. All-told the new Battlefront games have generated a tremendous 33 million sales worldwide, and many millions in consistent monetization revenues.