EA Grabs Another Exclusive License- Star Wars

Will the Force be strong in this relationship? Disney Interactive and Electronic Arts announced an exclusive multi-year partnership for EA to develop Star Wars “core” gaming titles. By “core” games, they mean console, handheld, and mobile games that aren’t the social stuff that Disney handles already for their other franchises. Disney will retain the rights to make those games.

Among the developers that EA mentioned in press release that will be assigned Star Wars titles are BioWare, DICE, and Visceral Games. BioWare is know for its RPGs, including Star Wars entries like the original Knights of the Old Republic and the current MMO The Old Republic. DICE develops the Battlefield franchise, but has dabbled in other genres like Mirror’s Edge. Most recently, Visceral handles the Dead Space franchise.

“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau. “Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay.”

Disney acquired Lucas Arts and its intellectual properties last year and already shut down Lucas Art’s development teams to focus on licensing the IP to other publishers and developers.

No information on the particular titles that will be developed by EA, other than continuing with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Stay tuned for more info as it comes in.