It looks like Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order might not be a fully single-player experience after all.
This piece of information comes from a recent listing of the game on the PlayStation Store, after it went up for pre-orders. The listing mentions the game as having optional online play, meaning that there might still be some multiplayer elements that come with the game.
This could be a particularly big deal, especially after Electronic Arts touted Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as a single-player experience without any sort of microtransactions or loot boxes whatsoever, even going so far as to add that these features will not be added to the game later. Obviously, give Electronic Arts’ track record when it comes to the monetization of their content (even when promising that no such thing will happen, as referenced by Battlefield V adding microtransactions anyway) there are some who are incredibly doubtful that EA will not put in a mechanic to monetize the game somehow even after players pay full price for it.
No microtransactions. No loot boxes. And no, we won't be adding them. A single-player Star Wars story for those of you who are ready to become a Jedi. https://t.co/kTheWVBjJc
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) April 13, 2019
The optional online play could also mean a number of things, with some even going so far as to speculate that the game may emulate the optional ‘invasion’ process of the Souls series, allowing other players to invade your game world or you to invade others. It might certainly be a good selling point, particularly to players who are already speculating that the combat involved in the game might be somewhat similar to the Souls series.
That said, the optional online play could point to something more mundane, like the presence of a leaderboard or certain time trial challenges. Since we know so little about the game at this point, other than it will be a narrative-driven single-player experience, it might be a bit early to properly speculate what it actually is. What everyone hopes it’s not, however, is a different thing entirely, as it is no secret that the mention of EA brings somewhat of a bad taste among gaming circles due to their questionably greedy practices and extensive monetization of their properties, not to mention their habit of buying out smaller studios.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order comes out on November 15, 2019 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It is being developed on the Unreal Engine 4 and is available for pre-order now.
