I feel that in discussing this game's cooperative nature, and whether or not said nature will remain in place, we may be overlooking another crucial element that may have contributed to the release's being pushed back: the breadth of the Star Wars canon itself, specifically the Expanded Universe.

Star Wars: The Card Game, as it was presented at Gen Con, focused solely on the Galactic Civil War. Indeed, for many fans this is the crux of the story: a band of unlikely heroes battling a seemingly impossible battle against the superior might of the Emperor's minions. It's iconic enough to stand on its own. And yet, for many others, myself included, this is not the end, nor the beginning, of the epic saga that is Star Wars. And for a game to have such an all-encompassing name as Star Wars: The Card Game, it should embrace all facets of the franchise, not just those that are considered to be the defining portion. In other words, I believe that a consideration for Expanded Universe lore may have impacted the release date, since various elements of play tied the Gen Con prototype intrinsically to the Classic Era. thereby making it inappropriate for a game with a broader scope.

As I have stated in a previous thread, I do believe that FFG's choice of founding their game on the Classic Era was the right decision for the time, as there's been a decided lack of attention to the Original Trilogy in the recent decade (with the exception of multiple DVD/BD releases). But by removing the game's artificial restriction to this four-year pinprick in the roughly 5,000-year span of heavily documented lore, the company would leave itself vastly more room for future expansion on this game without branching into others, and because it's an LCG, it'd be easy enough for purists to skip the packs and expansions that don't fit their vision of what Star Wars means to them.

My take: Instead of Rebel and Imperial cards, sets should be divided into Light Side and Dark Side cards (and perhaps Neutral cards), with players being restricted to one side or the other when building decks, and perhaps there could even be a small era symbol designating a card's position in the Star Wars continuity, in order that players who dislike anachronism may conveniently avoid it in their deckbuilding. Depending on how the gameplay itself is set up - namely, whether or not a direct and crucial relationship between the two sides of the Force will exist, as there was in the two most well-known previous iterations of the license - there may not even be a need to maintain decks of both sides and mutually select from the pair at the start of each game, though I expect such a rule would be put in place for official events anyway. (This part assumes that there will be a PvP mode at all, which IMO is a fair assumption given the premise on which I'm basing this topic, that the game ought to encompass everything Star Wars, which certainly includes the idea of two players representing the two sides of the Force in opposition.)

I certainly hope they do manage to produce a game that draws on the wealth of the EU. I'd always presumed that, given time, the game as originally described could feature characters like Winter and Tycho, Baron Fel etc, maybe have a Shadows of the Empire deluxe expansion, but never really expected it to move much beyond the confines of the original trilogy. It would be magnificent to be able to have the whole lot served up, though I still think they'll keep it to the original idea for now (though why, I cannot say). That said, it would make sense to capitalize on the Clone Wars TV show still airing, and of course, The Old Republic, if nothing else.

The idea of Light Side vs Dark Side would be the best way of facilitating this, of course, though that is precisely how WotC divided their game, so whether they'll essentially use the same method as the previous card game is doubtful to me. I feel they're striving for something completely new and fresh, though again, I have no real basis for this!

So that's my utterly bizarre opinion!

I think we may well see the Expanded universe get used at some point but it certainly wont be for a few cycles in.

As I said in another post (mere seconds ago!), since this seems to be going in the direction of PvP, if they are going to stick to the classic trilogy timeline and just go with Rebels vs Empire, they pretty much have to exploit the EU really early on if they're going to give us interesting Imperial player cards. Aside from The Emperor, Darth Vader, and Grand Moff Tarkin, with perhaps General Veers and Admiral Piett added in as well, there just aren't that many interesting Imperials in the movies. Needa and Ozzel were both failures, and Motti and Tagge spent the large portion of their screentime bickering. Unless we're to prepare for endless rafts of Captain Lennox, Lt Childsen, Commander Praji, Daine Jir and Chief Bast, ad nauseum, not to mention TK-421 and all his exciting stormtrooper brethren individually, then I think the EU may actually be present even in the core set - obviously with someone like Thrawn or Mara Jade: Emperor's Hand.

It's possible we'll get exciting characters for the Empire in the shape of bounty hunters, though I think it more likely they'll come as part of a neutral faction that you can draft into your deck, with someone like Boba Fett being highly priced but quite game-deciding, perhaps.