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

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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 aimed at the core gaming audience and 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.

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Talk about desecrating graves... First LucasArts dies as a developer, then the devil of gaming is chosen to take LucasArts' job.

I think we're all fooling ourselves if we think EA and Disney weren't in negotiations for this the entire time up to and including LucasArts' closure.

Great!

We'll get Madden Star Wars Edition for the Wii U!:end:

If DICE touches Battlefront, I don't want a modern Battlefield clone. The last thing I want are mediocre, character centered, single player campaigns in a game about mass conflict.

Bioware....No KOTOR 3 for you. I don't find the idea of making love to everything that moves romantic.

Visceral? You're ok in my book.

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Originally Posted by Occutell

Bioware....No KOTOR 3 for you. I don't find the idea of making love to everything that moves romantic.

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Making love...., hahahahah, rep given. It's almost as inept good as the versus evil choices in the first place.

I'm excited if Bioware or Visceral have anything to do with a Star Wars game. Maybe one of them will continue development on Star Wars 1313. That would be bad ass.

okay star wars is seriously fucked now

You guys are so negative. Expect the worst but hope for the best!

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Originally Posted by Occutell

If DICE touches Battlefront, I don't want a modern Battlefield clone. The last thing I want are mediocre, character centered, single player campaigns in a game about mass conflict.

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As far as Battlefront goes, I don't care about the campaign. I just want to be able to choose a map, faction and play (online and offline). And I hope they get every damn vehicle, ship, weapon and armor featured on celluloid in there.

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Originally Posted by Guntz

Talk about desecrating graves... First LucasArts dies as a developer, then the devil of gaming is chosen to take LucasArts' job.

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Damn.

So i guess no more awesomeness like Jedi Knight:??

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Originally Posted by Guntz

Talk about desecrating graves... First LucasArts dies as a developer, then the devil of gaming is chosen to take LucasArts' job.

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:rip: LucasArts
When did EA turned to the dark side?Was maybe after the Mega Drive days?

What did you all expect? The only publishers willing to spend the $ to acquire the license are giants like EA or Activision. I always thought EA did a nice job on the Bond franchise.

i expected disney to keep lucasarts alive and use them as a publisher and farm out the development really

so nwo we can expect microtransitions
always online bullshit drm's
annual updates of the same game
and day one gouging dlc bullshit


yeah ..no thanks

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Originally Posted by MrSega

Damn.

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Well said.

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Originally Posted by Greg2600

What did you all expect? The only publishers willing to spend the $ to acquire the license are giants like EA or Activision. I always thought EA did a nice job on the Bond franchise.

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We're only disappointed about it being EA taking over Star Wars games. We all know exactly how much EA will ruin things.

LucasArts is the old republic to EA's galactic empire...

so does that make us the gamers the rebellion ?

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Originally Posted by KitsuneNight

so does that make us the gamers the rebellion ?

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Only if you plan on destroying their Death Star. :p

Hopefully bioware gets the honors for making any starwars games. Being that EA owns bioware, and bioware made kotor (and kotor kicked ass) there could be hope yet.

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Originally Posted by madmax2069

Hopefully bioware gets the honors for making any starwars games. Being that EA owns bioware, and bioware made kotor (and kotor kicked ass) there could be hope yet.

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kotor 2 was better
and bioware is vastly over rated and over hyped
they have started to suck years before EA got them

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Originally Posted by AlecRob

Well said.

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The funny thing is that if Peter Moore doesn't take over as CEO, then I believe EA will be DOOMED in a few years. If they don't change their policies, their investors are going to jump ship.

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Originally Posted by MrSega

The funny thing is that if Peter Moore doesn't take over as CEO, then I believe EA will be DOOMED in a few years. If they don't change their policies, their investors are going to jump ship.

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hope springs eternal

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Originally Posted by Greg2600

What did you all expect? The only publishers willing to spend the $ to acquire the license are giants like EA or Activision. I always thought EA did a nice job on the Bond franchise.

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Exactly. I was pretty much expecting this given Disney made it relatively clear that they didn't want to take the major risks on publishing investments that Lucas Arts has been recently struggling with, and sticking with their low-risk high-reward formula that's worked well for them so far.

As for EA . . . them being the licensed publisher says relatively little about who's actually going to be DEVELOPING these games, and that's what really matters here. (be it any of their in-house teams or subsidiaries, or outsourcing to a 3rd party studio entirely . . . all big variables in how certain games might pan out)


On the battlefront comment, developers aside, I'm really hoping the idea for a dynamic multi-role game sharing some of the Battlefront 3 concepts would be considered. (the idea of having a mix of on-foot, ground, and air/space combat -and a decent story campaign as well as multiplayer- could be awesome) Something like some of the modern FPS titles, but with heavier emphasis on vehicle combat -especially air/space. (and potential for dynamic vehicle changing as in those types of games . . . hell, you could even do that for space missions to some extent . . . depending on the specific scenario/campaign -and that could include transition from on-foot on a space station to starfighter combat or the land to air to space transition feature being worked on in Battlefront III)


I'd really like to see an actual flight/space sim game in general, but given the apparent limited demand for that genre for the last couple decades, the chances for an interesting multi-role combat game seems more likely. (and, given the SW universe, you'd still have a stronger draw for adding air/space combat elements to that sort of game -again, as Battlefront III was already working at)

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

I'd really like to see an actual flight/space sim game in general, but given the apparent limited demand for that genre

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Would by an updated version of x-wing alliance.

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

.

As for EA . . . them being the licensed publisher says relatively little about who's actually going to be DEVELOPING these games, and that's what really matters here. (be it any of their in-house teams or subsidiaries, or outsourcing to a 3rd party studio entirely . . . all big variables in how certain games might pan out)

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considering Ea's recent as in oh say the past 10 years track record thats not exactly confidence inspiring

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

As for EA . . . them being the licensed publisher says relatively little about who's actually going to be DEVELOPING these games,

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The press release is self explanatory. EA will have "development and publishing teams" for Star Wars games, with studios like DICE, Visceral and BioWare developing them.

The bad news is not that EA is going to develop Star Wars games, but that they will have exclusivity for the Star Wars IP during many years.

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Originally Posted by Alexrd

The bad news is not that EA is going to develop Star Wars games, but that they will have exclusivity for the Star Wars IP during many years.

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I suppose that's the point that didn't stick so much with me . . . and yeah, that seems like more of a limiting factor there. Imagine if all of Disney's IPs had been locked-in for game development to a single publisher like that.

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

I suppose that's the point that didn't stick so much with me . . . and yeah, that seems like more of a limiting factor there. Imagine if all of Disney's IPs had been locked-in for game development to a single publisher like that.

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For example, Obsidian was making a Star Wars RPG pitch to Lucasfilm. Now with EA's deal with Disney, that pitch will never materialize until the deal is over.

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Originally Posted by Alexrd

For example, Obsidian was making a Star Wars RPG pitch to Lucasfilm. Now with EA's deal with Disney, that pitch will never materialize until the deal is over.

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Nah, EA will just buy Obsidian. Problem solved. Companies buying other companies solves EVERYTHING!

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Originally Posted by sheath

Nah, EA will just buy Obsidian.

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http://i.minus.com/i7kw48Odmhaqn.gif

Someone told me LucasArts isn't closing....

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Originally Posted by KnightWarrior

Someone told me LucasArts isn't closing....

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LucasArts will still exist as a licensing entity.

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Originally Posted by sheath

Nah, EA will just buy Obsidian.

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I guess that won't be necessary.

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Originally Posted by sheath

Nah, EA will just buy Obsidian. Problem solved. Companies buying other companies solves EVERYTHING!

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in that case i hope bethesda buys obsidian ( or zenimax if you prefer)

I'd rather no one buy Obsidian ;_;

But if I had to choose, then Zenimax would be a contender.
The major reason being their private status, as opposed to being publicly traded which has led them to be incredibly patient and willing to take new chances.

Hmm, I'm not sure what to say, but this looks interesting:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksLPEWj5lw


If this pans out well, it might be a good sign of EA's management of the Star Wars license. (and if it's anything like the concept for the original Battlefront III, I'll be very interested in this)

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Originally Posted by kool kitty89

Hmm, I'm not sure what to say, but this looks interesting:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksLPEWj5lw


If this pans out well, it might be a good sign of EA's management of the Star Wars license. (and if it's anything like the concept for the original Battlefront III, I'll be very interested in this)

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My biggest worry is strangely not EA in this case, but the studio they apparently assigned to it.
DICE LA, AKA made up of the people who made this:
http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net...hter-logo2.jpg