Yeah, I’ve never played a Quantic Dream game before, I was just referring to the many allegations against them. The company filed libel suits against two French newspapers who had jointly reported sexual harassment, severe crunch, and bigoted remarks from executives such as founder David “we don’t make games for f*gs” Cage. It won one case but lost the other. Former employees have also spoken out about the environment of racist and sexist jokes, staff exploitation and photoshops of staff members’ faces on Nazis and porn stars.

I’ve already seen plenty of people wanting to avoid the game either because they’re LGBTQ+ and don’t want to support a company run by people who hate their existence, or because their conscience won’t allow them to enjoy a game likely created under these conditions, or both. It hits particularly hard because the High Republic has been a very inclusive, diverse era so far and personally I’ve seen quite a few LGBT people who have felt more welcomed in the fandom than ever before. This is a slap in the face for them. Partnering with Quantic Dream is terrible judgement by Lucasfilm games in my opinion.

Still… the cinematic trailer is beautiful. It sometimes feels like Star Wars, sometimes not for me. It seems heavily inspired by Dune and is breaking new ground with unusual imagery for the Star Wars galaxy. I can’t help but be a little excited that the High Republic is expanding into another medium, and a game will be exploring a new era again, like with the Old Republic games. This video by Star Wars Explained helped make me interested by what the story will be.

And yet still, I might wait to buy a used copy. I’ll see. I want to reward a game like this which seems bold and inventive. It’s just frustrating for me.