Joystiq.com and other
outlets have picked up on the announcement made last night that Electronic Arts (EA) and the Walt Disney Company, which obtained the Star Wars franchise as part of its $4.05 billion acquisition of LucasFilm last year, have signed a multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish Star Wars games. This hadsmade EA the exclusive publisher of all Star Wars related video games for the foreseeable future and is great news for fans that were left in limbo after Disney shut down the
LucasArts gaming division during its wave of closures and layoffs. EA Labels President Frank Gibeau said that "every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe. He continues that "while we don't have any details to share today on specific titles, our development teams are already brimming with design ideas...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. The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but according to a press release on the
EA website which states that the agreement will allow EA to develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres. It also states that Disney have reserved the right to publish Star Wars titles in the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories
Fans will know that EA have already jumped into the SWEU before (with developer Bioware) to pump out the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. A taste of things to come may
have been leaked this May 4th. According to Joystiq.com, the presumed
dead Star Wars: Battlefront 3 game appeared randomly with new footage on a live stream over the weekend. The first occurrence of game footage was a
livestream by
PtoPOnline. According to
Game Informer, ptoponline.com focuses on "coverage and streaming of pre-release games, betas, and canceled projects. Strange timing to say the least. There may be hope now for the projects that we thought lost with this move. Only time will tell. We will update you on this story as it develops.