EA and Disney come to an agreement; EA will develop and publish games based on the Star Wars franchise


Star Wars 1313
Get excited everyone. Okay, some of you won’t be happy but this is at least a good thing, right? Walt Disney and Electronic Arts announced today a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines. In other words, there is still hope for a new Battlefront game, as well as the completion of Star Wars 1313.
Under the agreement, EA will develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience, spanning all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, while Disney will retain certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.
John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive said:
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come. Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”
EA Labels President Frank Gibeau added:
“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.”
It will be interesting to see what EA will do with the Star Wars franchise, and whether Star Wars 1313 will be back on track. We should also note that all new Star Wars titles by Visceral and DICE will be powered by Frostbite 3 engine. Oh and EA; please avoid always-online DRMs and implementing microtransaction features to them, will you?