EA And Disney Close The Deal On An Exclusive Star Wars Licensing Arrangement

As LucasArts closes its doors, the next stage in Disney's Star Wars video game plan has been revealed. EA has announced today an exclusive deal to publish all future Star Wars games for at least the next few years.

Disney and EA have reportedly closed the deal on "a new multi-year exclusive licensing agreement to develop and publish globally new games based on Star Wars characters and storylines."

The official announcement reveals that Electronic Arts "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."

While this is certainly news to us, EA already has a few projects in the pipeline. Three studios in particular are working on new Star Wars games. DICE, developers of the Battlefield series, Visceral, the guys behind Dead Space, and BioWare, developers of Mass Effect and The Old Republic, are all currently working on unannounced Star Wars projects.

"Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe," EA Labels president Frank Gibeau stated. "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."

"This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come," adds Disney co-president John Pleasants. "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."

It's definitely a controversial choice considering the recent SimCity fiasco. But considering how massive a publishing agent EA is, it's not especially surprising.