Rogue One Writer Criticizes Mismanagement of EA Star Wars License

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story writer, Gary Whitta, recently appeared on a Kinda Funny Games Daily video, where he sat down with Greg Miller to discuss Electronic Arts’ cancellation of EA Vancouver’s open world Star Wars game. While going over the publisher’s progress since it signed the deal with Disney in 2013, Whitta said that the company “catastrophically mismanaged” the license.

Whitta criticized EA for publishing the first Battlefront without a story, and for the “embarrassing fiasco” surrounding Battlefront II‘s microtransactions, which prompted Disney executives to step in. He also blasted the company for cancelling Amy Hennig’s Star Wars project (codenamed ragtag), which he thinks would have turned out fantastic with one of the best writers in the industry at the helm.

Whitta also revealed that he saw ragtag around the time it was cancelled and although it was “far from finished,” it looked “terrific” and “amazing.”

“It basically would have been Star Wars Uncharted, which I was very excited about,” he added. “My understanding is what they [EA] were saying all the way through is that we don’t want to make Star Wars Uncharted. Well, maybe don’t hire the narrative director of the Uncharted games to make it for you, and figure out what it is you actually want.”

The Rogue One writer went on to suggest that if he was at Disney and there was some kind of a “get out” clause in the contract with EA, he would revoke the license and “pull the plug.”

“If I was an EA shareholder, I’d be f****** furious,” Whitta continued, adding that EA “must have paid a fortune for this ten-year license.”

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[Source: Kinda Funny Games (YouTube) via We Got This Covered]