Star Wars video games. They exist right? Of course they do. There's a company out there, called Lucasarts, that publishes them all the time.

They've already made quite a few games based on Star Wars. There are plenty of OT games, several PT games as well, and the Battlefront games span both trilogies. The Jedi Knight games were special enough to go a few years beyond Return of the Jedi, 14 ABY.

But with the Legacy Series, we're up to 40 ABY now. All of that material? Entirely untouched by Star Wars games.

Now, pretty much all games are Expanded Universe material. They cover specific people like Kyle Katarn or Dash Rendar, or certain unseen events, that technically fall in the realm of "expanded universe," on account of not being in the movies. Although many games have and still do feature movie events, few follow the movie's plot specifically, some notable exceptions being the LEGO Star Wars games an the TPM game.

So games, by virtue of the fact that you can't directly translate a movie into a game without taking liberties, are EU. But the setting has been stuck rooted in the movie era.

Knights of the Old Republic forged new ground in going where no Star Wars game had gone before, by inventing not only new characters and events, but a new setting and era to take place in. The game was great, and the history of the galaxy that was constructed was a great addition to the franchise. A noteworthy point is that this dramatic change of setting was largely motivated by the fact that the game revolves around light and dark choices, and in a new setting, they would be free to have as great or minor consequences as they want, without conflicting with anything already written. (Although Jedi Knight didn't seem to have a problem with that).

KOTOR invented a setting, so that it wouldn't have to worry about conflicts.

But no Star Wars game has really embraced the settings that the EU has to offer.

Not-so-Fun Fact: The Yuuzhan Vong have a role in zero (0) Star Wars video games.
The New Jedi Order series was a addition to the saga. It not only covered many storylines, but provided a backdrop for a brand new brand of galactic conflict. It's a WAR for crying out loud, it's ripe for the taking by Lucasarts, and yet it has been utterly ignored.

In Knights of the Old Republic, there is a subtle reference, an optional dialog sequence, verging on an easter egg, that vaguely refers to something that a knowledgeable person would connect to the Yuuzhan Vong. To my knowledge, that is the extend of the Vong's presence in all of Star Wars video games.

The NJO isn't the only left out EU material. Thrawn, for example, is also absent from Lucasarts' entire library.

Whenever developers make a Star Wars game that approaches a game in an EU minded matter, they always make new characters, instead of taking advantage of any of the existing non-movie based characters or settings. KOTOR did it, the Jedi Knight series did it a lot.

One notable exception: Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, and expansion pack which featured Mara Jade.

Also, Shadows of the Empire, which was both a game and a book, made together to form a new chapter of the Star Wars saga. In some ways this is what I'm talking about, EU in harmony with games, but in many others, it's what I'm criticizing. It is based on the OT setting, and parallels the events and characters of the movies almost uncomfortably closely.


Why aren't developers taking advantage of the expanded universe settings available?

Perhaps it is a matter of public knowledge of the EU. As a Star Wars fan myself, who embraces the EU, the content available is obvious to me. But the casual audience may not even know about the Yuuzhan Vong, or Grand Admiral Thrawn.

But that really isn't an adequate excuse, in my opinion. Gamers, as an audience, will appreciate a game for the game. If KOTOR can be a success, without any direct ties to pre-known material, then any other content could succeed, regardless of whether it ties to existing content or not; and that's ignoring the probability that any EU connections will straight up increase profits.
Gamers are also statistically likely to be Star Wars fans (more so than the general public, I mean), or at least be especially familiar with the franchise.

Perhaps the issue isn't the hardcore gamers, but the casual gamers. Maybe they think they are too reliant on the general "Ooh, Star Wars" demographic to trust narrowing it to the "Ooh, New Jedi Order" people within that demographic.

I don't see this as an issue. The game defines who will want to play it. And if the familiarity of Star Wars is the selling point, then people unacquainted with the EU won't even notice the NJO, it'll just be a different plot. Make the box art seem more classic, and bam. No problem.

Are they worried about basing a game off a book? They don't have to. You can create your very own stories within the context of the NJO. The relevant part is the setting. It's a rich setting, that has been untouched.



What am I waiting for? I'm anxiously waiting a Star Wars game, any Star Wars game, to seriously take advantage of the content already in th EU that's just waiting to be further explored.