The first game reveal of the night was introduced by host Geoff Keighley. The host teased before revealing a cinematic trailer for Star Wars Eclipse, a new action game set in the franchise's recent The High Republic publishing initiative. The reaction to who was making it was something Keighley and many Star Wars fans were not expecting.
Chase, a queer Star Wars fan who creates LGBTQ-themed content about the Skywalker Saga online under the handle ThatGayJedi, told io9 over email that he was thrilled to see footage of a game that felt reminiscent of so many great, classic Star Wars games. It was easy to get caught up in the epic shots, music, and fresh storyline. I was happy.
Eclipse is not currently known. The trailer for Star Wars is cinematic and has no story or game details. There are shots of Jedi practicing with lightsabers, alien drummers, strange planets, and a mysterious figure. The biggest surprise of the trailer was the confirmation that the game is being developed by French studio Quantic Dream. The studio was founded in 1997 by David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumire and is best known for its technology-pushing, choice-driven, narrative-heavy video game style.
The studio has been involved in controversy in the past for the quality of its games and the stories they want to tell. A joint investigation by French press outlets Le Monde, Canard PC, and Mediapart reported wide-ranging claims of a toxic workplace culture at the studio, including accusations of a culture of crunch. The reports claimed that the developers perpetuated a provocative and bigoted culture of harassment at Quantic Dream.
After denying the allegations in the reports, Quantic Dream took Le Monde and Mediapart to court, suing them for libel. The case lasted for a number of years and ended a few months ago in a mixture of success and failure for bothQuantic Dream and the journalists it targeted. The French courts sided with the studio in its libel case against Le Monde, but they also sided with the studio in its case against Mediapart.
After watching the trailer for Star Wars, Chase learned about the accusations against the studio. I learned about them through a series of semi-critical statements on the internet, but then I learned a lot more through my own research on David Cage, Guillaume de Fondaumire, and Quantic Dream as a company.
It wasn't just allegations of a toxic workplace environment that irked Star Wars fans. The video game industry on a large scale has long had issues with cultures that fostered sexist, homophobic, and bigoted attitudes, and studios have wrestled with the nature of labor issues such as union organization and crunch. There was a moment of shock when it was learned that the studio would be getting its hands on the galaxy far, far away, but it was centered on David Cage's alleged comments during the court case earlier this year. In June of 2021, while appearing before the court, Cage was made to hear a lawyer read out a list of alleged statements he had made to the staff at Quantic Dream.
According to the independent French union Solidaires Informatique, a purported statement was read out during the trial. There is a lack of sex in the open space, and we don't make games for sex. The allegations were denied by Quantic Dream and its founders, before they brought Mediapart and Le Monde to court. An employee of the studio took the studio to court in July of last year, accusing it of being a toxic place to work and of having an unfair dismissal policy. The case was initially decided in the employee's favor, but the French Court of Appeals overturned it in April of 2021.
The writer/director of Star Wars Eclipse shared a trailer on social media with the message that he was happy to reveal Eclipse to the world, and that having the chance to contribute to this amazing franchise is a dream come true. We reached out to Quantic Dream to clarify Cage's relationship with the game, and for further commentary on their legal cases this year, but did not hear back by the time of publication. With or without his involvement, the partnership between Lucasfilm Games and Quantic Dream was less of a dream for some Star Wars fans and more of a nightmare for others.
It has been a weird roller coaster of processing to go on as a queer fan, and my initial thoughts about Eclipse were more along the lines of, 'Eh, whatever.' They said that the game would still be made and people would still buy it. I am not proud of that initial response I had, but I feel it is important to share that initial response honestly and openly because it shows how normalized homophobia, sexism, and racism are in fandom spaces. It normalized, but it was also praised and rewarded. We have been conditioned to reward this kind of behavior with platforms, contracts, and our own money.
The game is set during the High Republic time period, which is very upsetting to me. Bryan, a host on the queer-focused Star Wars podcast Pink Milk alongside Chase, told io9 that the game developers work culture seems to go against everything Lucasfilm has worked so hard at. Bryan has been disappointed in Lucasfilm and Quantic Dreams, and in some Star Wars fans excited by Eclipse reacting with hostility to himself and other queer people, after Pink Milk spoke out against the studio. The idea of asking for a social agenda makes me upset. Bryan has been out for 24 years and he is tired of the conversation. We are not asking for a social agenda, we are asking to sit in the front seat with everyone else. I want people who are on the other side of the table to tell me why they think they are better than me and why I don't belong in the Star Wars fandom.
Bryan was concerned about the drama surrounding the announcement and the fact that fans were either pushing a left-leaning "cancel culture" agenda or simply seeking something to complain about with Star Wars. Chase and Bryan are not the only ones who reacted to Eclipse. The new High Republic content from Star Wars is great because it gives us a better idea of what the Republic was like during its Golden Age, which is something we haven't had before. The Eclipse trailer made me very excited. It looks beautiful and has drama. One fan told io9 over email that he was upset when he saw the movie. Lucasfilm has been getting into these traps where they release something that looks really incredible, but there is a big issue that they know about, but they go along with anyway. In this case, partnering with a company.
During the AIDS crisis, I was a gay man. I was recently diagnosed with the condition of being on the spectrum. I had no one to help me navigate a world that was difficult for me to understand. D&D and Star Wars were my solace. There was a cis white bro culture when these sources of comfort encountered others. On the internet they spread. The trailer for Eclipse is very exciting. I would love to play it, but we are. I can't stop thinking about the game and its developer.
The #BlackoutStarWarsEclipse was started by some Star Wars fans after Chase and Bryan talked about Eclipse on the Pink Milk show.
The way the # has started taking off has been one of the most healing aspects of the situation. It has been an incredibly moving thing to see the growth of the hashtag and how it has gained traction. The allyship is strong, and I am grateful. Its allyship on so many fronts.
The critique of allegations from the lawsuits that have emerged in the past three years is the focus of the #. It serves as a place for fans to express their displeasure at the handling of a High Republic game by Quantic Dream, as well as the handling of a Star Wars game. The publishing initiative, which was launched in early 2021 as a series of novels and comic book series, explores a previously unexplored period of Star Wars history, approximately 200 years before the events of the Star Wars movies. In the last year alone, queer people of multiple gender and sexual identities have been important characters in the stories told in High Republic's world at a rate unlike anything previously seen in Lucasfilm's previous attempts. The fact that Eclipse is set in a queer-friendly Star Wars setting like The High Republic makes it even more upsetting for fans like Chase.
The most diverse part of the Star Wars canon is the High Republic. Lou told io9 over email that there are many people of color, women, queer people and so much more in Star Wars, but they have not had representation on this scale. The High Republic's key authors have worked incredibly hard to make this representation work in an otherwise frankly quite toxic fandom, and having Quantic Dream is a slap in the face to the writers and all the fans who are queer, or women. It's sad that we don't get representation as queer people, and seeing something that is finally for us be handed to this kind of company is just sad. I won't be buying the game even though High Republic is my favorite era of Star Wars.
In theory, Star Wars has always been an uplifting, liberal and inclusive franchise. It shies away from giving loud voices to PoCs and queer people in their live action developments. The High Republic has been a big deal for a lot of us. It has been a good change in Star Wars because it puts all groups in the forefront of representation. It is an inclusive era, but more than that it is an inclusive community that has been thrilled and passionate about The High Republic.
Lucasfilm and Quantic Dream have not commented on Eclipse's announcement. We will update this report if we hear back on the request made by io9 to Lucasfilm. In a period of transition for the Star Wars franchise at large, it pivots away from a mixed reception to the end of the Skywalker saga in 2019.
The story told in the Eclipse trailer seems to be an exciting one, any story building upon what the authors of the High Republic novels have built sounds thrilling to me. I would love for that story to be passed on to a new developer that can continue the legacy of Queer representation in Star Wars video games.
I want to be heard by Lucasfilm. I want Lucasfilm to acknowledge and apologize for the hurt they have caused and for them to show us some understanding of what has been an archaic and egregious decision.
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