EA to develop Star Wars games

[Dark_Lord]

Electronic Arts Selected for Multi-Year Agreement for the Future of Star Wars Gaming

May 06, 2013

Today it was announced that Lucasfilm Ltd. and Disney Interactive are entering into a multi-year, multi-title exclusive licensing agreement with Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) for the creation of new high quality Star Wars games spanning multiple genres for console, PC, mobile, and tablets.


Industry leaders and creators of best-in-class blockbuster games, the development and publishing teams at EA will collaborate with the creative teams at Lucasfilm to provide audiences with all-new gaming experiences set in the ever-expanding Star Wars galaxy. As part of the agreement, EA studio teams DICE (Battlefield series) and Visceral (Dead Space series) will join BioWare (Mass Effect series, Star Wars: The Old Republic) in the development of new Star Wars games.


"Our number one objective was to find a developer who could consistently deliver our fans great Star Wars games for years to come," said Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm. "When we looked at the talent of the teams that EA was committing to our games and the quality of their vision for Star Wars, the choice was clear."


While EA studios will develop for the core Star Wars gaming audience, Disney Interactive will focus on delivering new Star Wars games for casual audiences on mobile, social, tablet, and online gaming platforms.


"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 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. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay."


More information, including titles in development, will be announced in the coming months. Continue to check StarWars.com for updates on the future of Star Wars gaming.

StarWars.com

 

[Donut]

Hmmmmmmmmm

 

[hippie_hunter]

I see this as good news. At least EA is putting their good developers on the Star Wars franchise and maybe this will lead to Knights of the Old Republic III.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Prob just gonna lead to poorly made movie tie ins

 

[Dark_Lord]

I see this as good news. At least EA is putting their good developers on the Star Wars franchise and maybe this will lead to Knights of the Old Republic III.

Same here. At least it's better than Activision (imo).

Imagine a Battlefront III game from DICE, using the Battlefield 4 (Frostbite 3) engine.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I doubt we'll get anything like that. Disney has pretty much canned anything star wars related that doesn't tie in with EP VII.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Prob just gonna lead to poorly made movie tie ins

Major game publishers have gone weary of movie tie in games. EA and Activision have essentially completely given up on them.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I see this as good news. At least EA is putting their good developers on the Star Wars franchise and maybe this will lead to Knights of the Old Republic III.

Prob just gonna lead to poorly made movie tie ins

Then I guess this is part is good and bad news.

"Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay."

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I'm hoping for the best but not expecting much at this point

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

According to other sources, DICE, Bioware, and Visceral games are the threes studios that will be developing Star Wars games.

That gives me so much more hope for what's going to come in future for Star Wars games.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Yea putting those devs on the license is deff a plus

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Well at least we're going to get Star Wars games coming out rather than the eternal cycle of announced and canceled games that we were stuck in.

 

[Hush]

Those Devs were probably slobbering everywhere just to get a shot at this license. I mean think about it, with Lucasarts no one could touch this universe with out a ton of red tape. I best the guys and gals at those Devs were ADAMENT about getting a shot at this. It Star Wars, these guys prolly got into there field because of these movies. I'm pretty excited.

 

[Doc Ock]

Ohmygod.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I'm just getting even more excited at the thought of those developers on Star Wars games.

 

[Soapy]

I'm hoping for the best but not expecting much at this point

Yep.

 

[Spider-Vader]

These three developers making SW games has me so excited. Hopefully DICE's game will be Battlefront 3 or a spiritual successor.

As for Bioware, I'd like to see them move away from the KOTOR era. Let them do something else

 

[James]

Good news! I'm just happy *someone* will be making Star Wars games. BioWare could give us some really cool stuff.

 

[Soapy]

I'm just sad this most likely means that Obsidian's game will never see the light of day.

 

[Solidus]

Ya I'm split about this. I too am sad that Obsidian's game may never see the light of day or be allowed to make one. The past few Bioware games for the past 2-3 years have not really been that stellar, and with all the big devs/creators leaving that studio it makes me wonder. I have hope because I really want a good Star Wars RPG. I'm really hopeful with DICE behind it, an maybe the DS team could do good as well.

To me EA has great devs, just their politics and top management really mess it up. So I'm hoping that Disney will have (since they are one of hte biggest entertainment companies period) more power and say over quality ect.

So I'm leaning towards more optimistic that Disney will at least watch over them somewhat and they do have some good dev teams on it but EA itself can really mess with things.

We shall see. At least we will be getting stuff better then what LucasArts has done in the past decade in house.

 

[TX85]

Damn..,I'm mixed on it!!

 

[Iceman]

EA are crap but thank **** they've bought all those great studios and thank **** they are forced to let them work well. I think these games will be great, the Star Wars games we've always wanted. EA might own these studios but they don't dictate terms like they do with their internal studios. If they forced EA policies onto the likes of DICE and Bioware the best talent would leave and set up anew or take top positions elsewhere & those acquisitions would be worth a hell of a lot less. Aside from the franchise titles associated with their acquired studios, the main investment is human capital.

A Star Wars epic campaign & multiplayer shooter with light sabers designed by any combination of the guys responsible for Dead Space, Mass Effect & Battlefield with EA's backing & budget could be the CoD killer they've always wanted. Just keep the DICE guys away from the campaign (Actually I'm expecting them to fix this weakness with BF4)

 

[Solidus]

No Mass Effect type of RPG. If they are going to do an RPG they have to do it old Bioware style like KOTOR.

 

[jacobed]

They definitely won't mix that massive weakness. I love this news, I actually love Ea. They deliver quality products year after year. Plus they're not afraid to take a chance every once and while

 

[TX85]

A potential good thing could be a new Battlefront being VERY similar to the Battlefield series,Imagine the upcoming Battlefield 4's graphics/gameplay&features as a template with the Star Wars/Battlefront universe as the setting,Story campaign could be amazing with an epic MP mode(Imagine Battlefield's But with space ships/battle vehicles/rebels&stormtroopers everywhere with crazy environments on different SW planets/locations)!