Disney’s acquisition of ‘Star Wars’ certainly left a lot of people wondering how it would effect the future of the franchise in terms of video games. Luckily for us, video game publisher Electronic Arts has signed a deal with Disney for exclusive rights to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, and already has plans to develop several new games set in the iconic universe.
The full press release is as follows:
The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) today announced a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines.
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.
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive. “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.”
“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.”
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
So what exactly does this mean for Star Wars in gaming? Gamer fans of the franchise can rest assured that it is in good hands, as Visceral Games, the team behind the critically-acclaimed horror series ‘Dead Space’, is already set to develop a next-generation game set in the ‘Star Wars’ universe.
No other details have been given as of yet, but ScienceFiction.com will have more updates as they come.
