I feel like I shouldn't be shocked, but hearing this latest news about Amy Hennig really bums me out. It appears to align with EA's statement that single player games are not worth it but with recent critical successes of Mario Odyssey, God of War, Nier, and Breath of the Wild how does a publisher like EA, attract and hire talent like Amy Hennig then shelve the project she has been working on indefinitely. And the only answer we will get for a long time due to contracts is "it's complicated."

It's bananas that we probably will never know what game that ever was. I know it's a joke and a shitty meme that EA kills studios, but this latest development completely wasted her leadership and creative vision, alongside the talents of a studio like Visceral. Why should EA own exclusive rights to the Star Wars license if they don't even know what to do with it anymore? Why should any future studio trust EA? If they want to focus on games as a service or free-to-play mobile money suckers, that's fine. But don't attract creative talent like Amy Hennig just to piss away her time.

Best of luck to her new studio and curious to see what she tackles focusing on developing for VR.

Edit: Link to the article as reported on the Verge

Good! Now that she's starting her own thing, maybe we'll actually get to play whatever games she'll have thought up.

I was never huge on the EA-hate bandwagon, but what the fuck are they even doing anymore.

Hey, @moosehead, would love a link pointing out a source when you mention these things. It can be good to get more eyes on statements, wordings, and such.

yeah- saw this and contemplated starting a thread on it.

i'm kinda split on it- on the one hand, it's damn shame that whatever work was started with her at the helm will likely never see the light of day. on the other hand- it was a star wars game, so maybe we're better off.

(that parting star wars jab is mostly meant in jest- i'm a recovering fan from youth and i know the franchise can support unique and interesting stories. however, i can't think of anything more creatively stifling to a dyed-in-the-wool writer like amy henning than the star wars universe. i'm completely desensitized to excitement surrounding anything star wars given the multi-channel onslaught of the last few years).

@rahf: Link to the article on the verge
I first read the news from the Verge but I've since read a similar article cross-referencing her quotes on Eurogamer. The news is that she finally revealed she isn't working at EA since January, and can't keep quiet anymore because she has had to dance around questions about her project at EA. She spoke out about it now because she wants to move on with her new indie studio and what she has been quietly working on since January.

@mellotronrules: I think I'm more disappointed because how do you go from enticing the creative director of Naughty Dog to spending the next 4 years on a project with literally no information except that Visceral and her team were working with the Star Wars license. Knowing that and given her CV, I'm curious what new story she would have written and explored with a video game narrative. Unfortunately now we know nothing, due to contracts and NDAs, we will know nothing, and there is no future for that style of gameplay while EA has decided to restructure their business and interests with games.

I know that the Uncharted series is not everyone's cup of tea, but playing through Uncharted 2 for the first time is one of my fondest gaming experiences. Potentially having that experience translated to Star Wars could have tremendous. In the end, it's been a waste of time and indefinitely shelved for its reasons and there isn't anything she can do about it except move on to her own projects.

I could have sworn this already happened a year or two ago, but that might have been some other Star Wars game cancellation thingy.

@uhtaree: In October, it was reported that EA was shutting down Visceral Studios who were working on the game and EA was moving around people to focus on priorities. Amy was still heading the project but it was revamped and moved to a different studio, and EA said it would be something completely different.

Famously, that's when the quote about story-based, linear adventure games are not what gamers want.

It's not even a joke or a meme at this point. It's a very sad and real list of once-great studios that have wasted away into nothing under the EA umbrella, to the point that anytime they acquire a studio, it's fair to consider it likely not long for this world. It's become this giant bummer of a thing, where it can almost be considered devs knowingly cashing out from the business if their studio joins EA. Except in reality, devs probably aren't even getting a Scrooge McDuck pile of cash when that happens, so everyone kinda loses. Watching some shell of a studio make EA games vaguely like the awesome shit they used to is depressing as fuck. Even when it manages to work where studios somehow maintain a general level of product quality (Respawn and DICE come to mind), EA often manages to torpedo the product with awful business decisions like releasing games in the worst possible window or stuffing them full of progression limiters/loot crates. I can't feel sorry for EA or much defend them anymore. This latest news is not at all surprising or atypical.

I dunno what I'm tired of more at this point - EA fucking shit up, or Star Wars in general. I think its a tie.

EA has nobody to blame but themselves. They spend way too much time as an overhead publisher focusing on trying to capitalize on market trends instead of allowing that data/information to empower the games they already have in development. You don't just completely change focus on a project just because of the shift in the games industry. How much do you want to bet they are the studio that first tries the SW license with the BR mode?

Grumble. The worst part is, there is generally nothing wrong with paying attention to what is what in the games industry, and in the spirit of the game you are developing incorporate or consider things that are out there. I highly doubt a purely SP SW experience would of been developed in such a bubble that it wouldn't of felt modern. Especially by that studio. Dead Space was pretty elaborate for it's time, and built upon conventions of RE4 and was certainly a big factor in that generations push to see more RPG mechanics in everything.

The worst part about all this stuff is just seeing good concepts/ideas get shelved. It'd be one thing if EA was just doing trash with these properties and had no good ideas or good talented people who they hire. They make good pushes to hire these people, and then when push comes to shove they show no support in the projects that they originally hired them on. Which seems to entirely be the case with actual SW right now as well, with all the internal replacing and strife going on with some of their movies even.

Add it to the list of good ideas that EA has started and shelved after showing no confidence in what they initially were bought on. Hell that list probably needs a specific SW chapter now, along with some of the other notable ones.

EA is probably spooked by recent events and feeling the tonnage of the Star Wars franchise resting heavily on its head is frantically trying to micro-manage everything Star Wars-related. I wouldn't be surprised if they consolidate things to a single AAA Star Wars line of games.

Best of luck to her, looking forward to seeing what VR game she works on. I really do hope Star Wars is taken away from EA soon. I bought Battlefront 2 on sale because I was so desperate for a Star Wars game, and good god does it lack soul. Everything about it feels so disappointing. At least it looks nice.

If you care about storytelling & writing, it seems like you don't want to be at an AAA studio it seems. Sad, but they just don't want to make games that they can't throw their moneyhooks on. But don't worry, because you as a player get to make your own story nowadays! :/

You kind of say it right there, critical successes. Combined with the fact that three of those games are first party, one had a long window of console exclusivity and none are licencing one of the worlds biggest entertainment properties.

Explaining a big critical success to shareholders for a game that potentially undersells or doesn't bring in any extra money beyond the initial purchase isn't really the business EA is in now for AAA. That sucks, especially since they have the Star Wars licence on lock. The money they've probably paid for that licence combined with the cost of making a AAA Uncharted style single player game just doesn't add up for them though, even if it does Uncharted numbers.

Unfortunately, the big budget exclusively single player game seems destined to be the domain of first party and studios that are privately owned like Bethesda.

@superharman: That just seems crazy though, doesn't it? Your basically saying that they have likely structured the development phases of the SW license as such so that if a game were to be a SP hit and sell 10+ million copies it wouldn't be good enough.

If your a video game publisher and your sitting there going "10 million people playing our game isn't enough for us to make a profit" your doing something wrong. There is no way in my mind that any SW SP game wouldn't get near that, with the type of names that were rumored involved. Hell Battlefront 2 did over 10 million units didn't it? I don't know how you can't not make money and give people what they want selling those kind of unit numbers, even when you falter.

Sounds like shareholder fear mongering to me, with no real actual evidence for if it will work or not. Seems far more likely that instead they go "yeah we could do 10-15 million and everyone loves it, or we could do this other thing that does 10 million units and then milks more and more money out of those who buy the game." They'd much rather the quick fast bigger buck instead of using the opportunity to build communities around the quality of the products they could make with the brand.

A shelf that not even Ben can reach.

I mean, like I said, it sucks, but EA isn't Electronic "Arts" anymore despite the goodwill they've shown a couple of indie games over the last couple of years. They're looking at this from nothing more than a money perspective and they want (or perhaps need) the games to continue making money after launch.

I remember at the time of getting the exclusive licence (and unfortunately, I can't find a source for it), someone from Activision said something to the effect that, because of the licence, it was hard to make money publishing Star Wars games.

I'd love for Disney and EA to come together and decide they need to get some goodwill in the community so they make the big budget, Uncharted style Star Wars game that people say they want, but I don't see it happening. They'd also need to nail it and I mean really nail it because they're up against a lot of high quality first party games where the publishers main purpose is to sell consoles and the fact they get to focus on a single platform helps. Also, the Star Wars community is pretty damn divisive at the moment so you're serving a rough fanbase.

I feel like making a multiplayer focused game like EA is doing nowadays is just plain cheaper for them to produce. And they get to create additional content based on how well the game performs. With a singleplayer game all the environments , cutscenes and storyline need to be in there from day one. People thought the `death of singleplayer` worries were unfounded, but it's clear that you won't find many of them in the western AAA-sphere in the future.

EA tried to go Full Disney by churning out Star Wars games but by the time any of them actually come out it feels like the franchise will be completely dried out with the way things are going at the moment.

I mean....when you have the hefty price tag of the star wars name attached, yeah a single player game wont bring home the bacon. But just this year Bethesda dumped a huge FREE update for Prey on us. God of War might be the best selling ps4 to date in only a matter of a few months. Kingdom Come (dont freak out, Im just MENTIONING it) sold over a million copies, the Yakuza (yeah I know not western) series is picking up steam with each release. And looking forward, some of the most hyped games of E3 are single player games. Cyberpunk, Last of us 2, Spiderman...so I think single player games are just fine.

Considering Amy's one of my favorite creative people in the industry, I'm DESPERATE to play something she's directing.

What a car crash. EA is honestly one of the worst gaming companies out there so I'm glad Hennig is out of there. It's a shame the most interesting Star Wars game in years died in the process.

Hearing that shes gonna do VR is just... fuck man, I cant help but feel her talent will be wasted again.

It's sounds like they completely mismanaged that Star Wars project, between giving it to a relatively inexperienced studio and expecting it to immediately be up to Naughty Dog standards, and then apparently they've continued to mishandle it since then to the point that it is shelved.

Yep. Amy Hennig is way to awesome of a creator to be stuck in the VR trenches.

I think what big companies like EA realize though is that while single player games can sell well, they have to actually be good because you're making most of your money on selling copies of the game. If your game has multiplayer, even if your game is mediocre/is the same as last year's game, you can make a lot of money just fleecing the dedicated fans for cosmetics/Ultimate team packs or whatever.

But I'm with you, it's disappointing that this Amy Hennig Star Wars game (and Star Wars 1313 before it) get axed because publishers are skittish about selling single player games, yet the mediocrity that is Star Wars Battlefront continues to get made.

I had already assumed that game was never coming out, so this is about as shocking as the sun coming up this morning.

Ha, makes my theory of "amy hennig is a hack fraud" almost plausible. (put's on his tinfoil hat).

What is your theory actually based on? It feels like calling the director of critically well regarded games like the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver games and Uncharted "a hack fraud" is a pretty broad statement that you can't just leave hanging (well, you can of course). Even if she's never involved in a finished game again that seems a fairly solid CV right there.

At some point Disney have to be taking a long hard look at this deal. It's been what, 5 years, half way into the 10 year exclusivity deal. We've gotten Battlefront & Battlefront II (with all its assorted issues & controversies harming the brand), Galaxy of Heroes on phones, and that's it. The Old Republic soldiers on, but was also a deal made before the exclusivity contract. In that time we've had 4 movies come out.

I know games take a long time to make, but 2 console games in the 5 years and none expected this year or next is a very poor return. Especially with the damage done by the handling of Battlefront II, even if it was perhaps unlucky to be the microtransaction game that was at the centre of the storm.

Maybe she'll go help make another Soul Reaver. Just kidding (though that'd be cool). I find it unfortunate that any single player focused Star Wars games get canceled nowadays. I am not a big fan of the films, but I've always considered many of the games to be great. There's a lot to work within that universe to make a captivating game right now.

EA sucks but I also could not give less of a crap about a star wars Uncharted game so I guess both sides are right?

@forkboy: There are some "speculations" that she's a nightmare to work with and that here games are only good because she tend to surround here self with creative people. Kinda Getting a George Lucas vibe from here. But yeah all the stuff i heard can't be confirmed.

Good stuff, she was wasted at EA imo. Looking forward to seeing her next project, her track record has been great regardless of her methods, individual talent or vision.

If Hennig is involved in anything as special as Lone Echo, I will be all over it. VR can be fantastic.

It is not a waste of talent.

@manhattan_project: no doubt jumping into VR is risky business for an indie studio but VR needs talented creators to try their hand at creating something unexpected. I'm not expecting a masterpiece but I think it's good for the VR as a platform.

My brother picked up PSVR when it went on sale and after playing a demo for Moss, I get it. I instantly understood what the hell VR can do when it comes to new gaming experiences. It's so much more than watching VRodeo.

Naughty Dog's first big development for PS3 with Uncharted was a tremendous first step, but it's a difficult game to go back and play. However, the team still nailed something intriguing with the cast of characters, voice casting, interesting setup, and the best graphics for the time. Naughty Dog then iterated on their success to build an even more successful sequel with a much more balanced gameplay, action set pieces, great dialog and intriguing narrative.

I didn't buy a PS3 to play Uncharted 1, but a price drop happened and the slim redesign made it an easy decision to take the plunge for Uncharted 2.

I would love to see what Amy and the type of talented team she can assemble to tackle a VR experience and if it has the possibility of shifting the opinions of VR.

At least we will see what the project is - success or failure.

@forkboy: Holy, that puts things in perspective on how EA has not accomplished much with the Star Wars license since the exclusivity announcement. They literally own the studio that specializes in the Battlefield formula and has completely bungled what should have been two money-making bangers had they just made the fucking game that everyone expects. Amy's game was the wildcard that would have shown Disney that video games could have been a medium to explore themes and expanded universe in a different medium just like the KotoR, Republic Commando, Jedi Outcast/Acadamy. I wonder if the failures of both Battlefront I and II to print money collapsed the expectations that Visceral's and Hennig's game would not recoup the cost of its production.

I'm basically just left questioning what the hell are they doing and what are they expecting? It's like they are caught in between investors begging EA to make games a service (Destiny) blended with World of Warcraft license to print money for years and years, with the capital to invest in top talent and not have creative direction. But why waste all that time developing a design doc, building assets, designing game mechanics, an engine, a narrative, characters, etc. and attracting top talent to do it to determine they never wanted it anyway because they project it to not be commercially profitable.