The Star Wars property has seen a resurgence in the video game space. Respawn Entertainment launched the successful Fallen Order two years ago. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is poised to reinvent the property that kickstarted the Lego video game craze, and a remake of Knights of the Old Republic is in development. For all of this positivity within the fandom, Star Wars Eclipse has been criticized since its announcement at The Game Awards 2021.
If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you might have seen the hashtag #BlackOutStarWarsEclipse trending. This hashtag is a largescale movement from fans to boycott Star Wars Eclipse. Developer Quantic Dream’s abusive work culture and bigotry has led to the aforementioned boycott that is trying to rally as much support as possible. This includes publications and enthusiast media refusing to cover the title at all. As long as David Cage and his studio are involved, the vocal fanbase wants no part in it.
The earliest reports of things being amiss at the studio date back as early as 2013 around Beyond: Two Souls’ launch. Elliot Page criticized the studio over its nude model of the actor, falling short of successfully suing. In the years since, many other reports and allegations have come forward. People at the studio had photoshopped tons of images of various staff members in sexually explicit, compromising, and racist situations.
Beyond this, David Cage has been known to make inappropriate remarks about female colleagues, insisting they were just jokes. Cage has also made disparaging comments about the LGBTQ community in public. Quantic Dream has been under investigation multiple times over the years, but somehow seems to come back without repercussions. David Cage most recently won an appeal this year that discarded the allegations against the the studio’s abusive work culture. If enough support mounts, the public pressure could potentially lead to leadership changes, enabling a healthier workplace for the victims working at the company.
