Posted on by Dunc

A brand new StarWars.com

The official site has a new look – “the biggest re-haul since Star Wars’ official online presence began.” It appears the news portion of the site is now driven by the official blog.

Among the changes is a scaled back version of the Databank – now called the Encyclopedia – which now only seem to features characters from the movies and The Clone Wars. (Sigh.) Entries are very brief, and link directly to the Wookieepedia, however. That’s pretty inclusive for an official site.

On that note, there’s also a page for fan sites and organizations – we seem to have made the cut, which is nice.

And no doubt we’ve only scratched the surface tonight… I’ll be interested to see where this goes.

One thing I will say – this site design is very simple, and very basic. Since there is a tendency in Star Wars design to go completely over the top and throw everything that applies, I’m glad to see at least one aspect is keeping it simple. (Even if I still do wince at that Blu-ray cover art.)

10 Replies to “A brand new StarWars.com”

  1. I kinda like the simplicity of the design, its clearly aimed at making it easier for kids to navigate.

    Glad to see they are keeping up the respect for the EU, that money making second cousin they love to ignore.

    Seriously though, I know GL created star Wars but could he not be more grateful/respectful towards such a popular and well loved part of his creation? I really am not a fan of the man.

  2. It’s an improvement over the Yahoo version, but that’s about it, imho.
    Pictures/videos: Nice, but still no HD. Plus it’s either not enough for an all-style site or too much for a content oriented site.
    Encyclopedia: It makes sense to emphasize Wookieepedia, but the rest is neither fish nor fowl. Big pictures, little text, what’s that supposed to be?
    America, America…: The new TOS continues to discriminate against the vast majority of the Star Wars fan base, and that’s not only sad, but plain stupid. Honestly, people, the world is much bigger than just the US, and the tiny nod to the UK (via Jedinews.co.uk) doesn’t help much! Or to put it with Padmé: Wake up, webmasters, you must wake up!
    Geesh, can it be so hard?

  3. Should be interesting to have a browse around the new site. Shame some of the old content is off for now, but fingers crossed some of it comes back eventually. Great to see you guys on the Fan Sites page!

  4. I like it. Way less overwhelming than it was before.

    I certainly hope that the Encyclopedia eventually re-expands. That’s a lot of entries to change to the new format.

  5. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that some of the old content (especially the original fiction) will be ported over, but overall I’m quite liking new design. It feels like a fresh start, and I appreciate that.

  7. In my opinion so far it looks bad…and site doesn’t work with Opera. Hopefully old content (especially kid activities and TCW trivia) will be back. And maybe a little EU corner?

  8. Thanks, Justin.

    Aaron; Do you mean videos and such not playing outside of the U.S.? I’m not sure that blame can be laid at the feet of LFL… It seems to be a pretty standard issue with video everywhere, and goes back (at least with TCW) to foreign rights issues. Because otherwise I gotta say, I have no idea what you mean…

  9. I agree that an awful lot of it comes down to licensing issues and the fact that (for example) episodes of The Clone Wars will be broadcast in the States weeks before the UK (even though folks in the UK will manage to see them pretty much within hours of them being broadcast, officially or unofficially).
    Fact is, despite the films being largely shot in the UK, with UK crews and casts, ‘head office’ is in the States and as such the focus (as the largest market for Star Wars) on events, shows, conventions, special appearances etc lies there. Jedi News are over the moon to be included on that list of sites, and we’re very aware that we’re the UK’s biggest site, but I hope that – with time – more European and international sites get included.
    TeeKay-421 in Belgium, Star Wars New Zealand, Mouse Droid in Australia, Star Wars Hungary, Star Wars Club Portugal, Jedi Outcasts in Italy not to mention the Japanese sites are all are worthy of inclusion on a list like this.
    I think it’s a positive move and, as the ‘mission statement’ says, they are open to suggestions, to tweaking and changing the site going forward. I far prefer it to the previous iteration of the site.

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