Before we start, go google what canon and non-canon means. I am not explaining it, you are not my apprentice.
In case you guys haven't heard the Star Wars story group at Disney have decided to make a lot of the expanded universe stuff non-canon this way they can build on the Star Wars movie universe without creative hindrances. This is a good move, most of the expanded universe stuff is poorly written and rubbish and would make for terrible movies. Also all the spoilers would be in the books much like what we saw with the first few seasons of Game of Thrones. (The TV series and the books have started to depart from each other a lot now so its less of an issue)
Back to Star Wars, as far as video games go Star Wars has had an awesome run. Some of the best video games ever made are set within the Star Wars universe, games like Knights of the Old Republic, The Jedi Knight series, Empire at War and Force Unleashed were all fan favourite and great lore additions to the Star Wars universe. Knights of the Old Republic in particular seen by many as the best RPG of all time.
Disney also also said that is that all games and merchandise to follow will be part of the new canon. I feel this is big mistake for their video games and tabletop products going forward.Now they are free to change their stance on this as they go, I wouldn't say its written in stone at this point. But its a discerning stance for them to take.
How does this effect X-Wing Miniatures?
Those of you who play X-Wing know there are a lot of characters featured in the X-Wing games that were from the expanded universe, they really add some flavour to the game and allow the fans to play as some of their favourite characters. As of Disney taking over Star Wars a huge amount of them are no longer cannon. This includes; Sontir Fel, Kyle Katarn, Mara Jade, Corran Horn etc etc. They are still part of the game just not part of the Star Wars movie universe cannon anymore.
After the addition of Judo to the game as an advanced Tie Fighter pilot I was really looking forward to seeing Galen Marek added to the game flying his Sith Fighter, I was also hoping Darth Maul would be added as the star ships they both fly look very similar and in fact could be treated as the same ship. There is now less likelihood of this happening as Galen Marek is part of the expanded universe and its unlikely we will see him join the game.
Whats also quite noticeable at the moment is the new naming scheme of the ships. They no longer have an expanded universe to draw from so we are getting a lot of ace pilots being called things like "Zeta Ace" for example, wouldn't it be better if they continued to draw from the existing expanded universe as a nod to the fans of that material? Wouldn't X-Wing as a game be better if it wasn't confined to movie canon? How does X-Wing a really small niche product effect the Star Wars movie universe as a whole. It doesn't really.
Does this mean we won't see new installments of The Force Unleashed and Jedi Knight?
From what I understand Ubisoft is allowed to do whatever they want with their existing Old Republic Universe. Its set three thousand years before any of the Star Wars movies and cannot really do any damage. Also I think its being treated as non-cannon.
But what does this mean for game series like; Force Unleashed or Jedi Knight? Will we ever see Garen Malek or Kyle Katarn wielding light sabres again? If so this really bugs me. What are the future Star Wars games going to look like? With the way video graphics are at the moment its actually about time for a Jedi Knight series, it would sell well to the current market for the nostalgia and its already existing brand value.
The same goes for the Force Awakens, uh well Force Awakens 2 wasn't great and pretty much ends the story but don't we still want to see the Galen Malek character in future Star Wars games? (They don't have to be Force awakens titles)
What do Star Wars games look like right now?
Well thus far we have Battle Front, (The third installment in the battlefront series) its a must for uber Star Wars fans and not only is it visually stunning but has awesome immersive gameplay. I could get into how I feel about the DLCs but that is not the purpose here. So far battlefront offers no new characters only those drawn from the movies. Another example of modern Star Wars games is the new Star Wars infinity, these games are for kids so I haven't played them but they appear to be platform third person action games set in the movie universe loosely following the movie storyline.
But there may be pardon me, a new hope! Though at the moment the project is cancelled It sounds like there is interest in re-birthing Star Wars 1313, if you don't know much about this its set in the deepest levels of Coruscant and though not confirmed it appears you get to play a young Bobba Fett as he makes his way through the mean streets learning to become the badass bounty hunter we all know and love. I'll drop a link to see what it looked like prior to its cancellation. Hopefully Disney does decide to pick this up and continue its development because it really looked to be shaping up to being an awesome game.
Conclusion
Though they seem to have made a decision, its not really set in stone yet. Only time will tell if we will see these character re-emerge in the tabletop or video games. Who knows, if market research shows that the fan demand is high enough maybe we will see our favourite expanded universe characters sooner than we think.
Click here to see Star Wars 1313 game play preview, you will notice the main character is not Bobba Fett in the video, apparently this is because they wanted to keep it a secret.
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