There's no fanbase as vocal as the Star Wars fanbase. From the release of the much-berated prequels to the now-much-berated sequels, the Lucasfilm franchise is airways surrounding by drama.
Whenever there's a stink rising from the Star Wars IP, you can be sure that the fanbase will speak up about it. As it turns out, that's exactly what's happening with the development of Star Wars Eclipse, a narrative video game created by Quantic Dream.
Fans tell Lucasfilm to dump Quantum Dream
After the announcement of Star Wars Eclipse in December, fans quickly took to social media to boycott the upcoming video game. Banding around the hashtag “BlackoutStarWarsEclipse”, Star Wars fans urged Lucasfilm to cut ties with the developer.
Fans noted a long-documented history of uncomfortable working conditions at the video game company. The company was accused of having a “highly toxic work environment”. Workers were allegedly subjected to long crunch, abuse and a workplace rife with pornography and anti-semetic references.
During court proceedings regarding the accusations, founder and co-CEO David Cage allegedly expressed highly sexist and homophobic remarks. According to reports, Cage ran out of court saying: “in my games, all women are whores” and “at Quantic Dream, we don't make games for fags”.
With such horrendous accusations, Star Wars fans are unhappy with Lucasfilm partnering with the studio. In response, fans have started multiple campaigns to convince the movie studio to stop the developer.
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The fan campaign is still going strong
The backlash has been heavily backed by famous YouTube channel Star Wars Explained. As one of the more extensive Star Wars YouTube channels, SWE has a massive following of hardcore sci-fi fans.
“David Cage has a history of disgusting behaviour, especially towards women and the queer community,” the channel said. “The Star Wars Eclipse reveal had me *really* excited, but we will not be covering the game while Cage is involved, and we support the fans behind BlackoutStarWarsEclipse”.
Since then, thousands of fans have risen in support of the backlash with new campaigns popping up every week. One tweet from the most recent wave explained:
“We're now in a new year but old attitudes are still alive. Lucasfilm has yet to speak to the thousands of people upset with their decision to work with Quantic Dream on Star Wars Eclipse. In this new year we aren't going to be quiet anymore!”
Lucasfilm has remained completely silent on their decision to partner with the controversial developer. However, at this point, it looks like development will continue full steam ahead.