Electronic Arts Cuts Deal With Disney for Star Wars Games

Posted on May 6, 2013

The Walt Disney Company and Electronic Arts Inc. have announced a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish games based on Star Wars characters and storylines. The move follows Disney's closure of LucasArts earlier this month.

EA will develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms. Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.

EA Labels President Frank Gibeau, said in as statement, "Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe. 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."

Gibeau also writers in a blog post, "While we don't have any details to share today on specific titles, our development teams are already brimming with design ideas."

Disney shut down LucasArts earlier this month after acquiring Lucasfilm last year. Disney said at the time it planned to shift its game division to a licensing model.