Disney & EA Team For “Star Wars” Games

A month after closing LucasArts and scrapping in development projects like “Star Wars: 1313,” Disney has announced they and Electronic Arts Inc. have “firmed up plans” to develop and publish new games based in the “Star Wars Universe”.

EA will develop and publish the new titles, with plans for all interactive platforms and game genres. Disney retains rights to develop gaming titles for its own mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.

EA Labels president Frank Gibeau says: “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.”

Numerous “Star Wars” video games have been produced over the past few decades including the “Rebel Assault” and “X-Wing” titles in the 1990s, “Knights of the Old Republic” and “Battlefront” in the early-mid 2000s, and the “Force Unleashed” and LEGO related “Star Wars” games for the most recent console generation.

Electronic Arts is responsible for some of the biggest franchises in gaming including Army of Two, Battlefield, Burnout, Crysis, Dead Space, Dragon Age, FIFA, Mass Effect, Medal of Honor, Mirrors Edge, Need for Speed, Rock Band, The Sims, Skate, SSX and Wing Commander. Their BioWare label developed the mega-budget MMORPG “Star Wars: The Old Republic”.

However, they also achieved infamy as The Consumerist magazine awarded EA the title of “Worst Company in America” in 2012 according to a poll tabulating more than 250,000 votes. They won the award again last month for such complaints as day-one DLC, micro transactions, poor customer support, dismissiveness of criticisms, and their habit of acquiring and squashing smaller developers.

The company also announced today the arrival of “The Sims 4” in 2014.

via Disney & EA Team For “Star Wars” Games | News | Dark Horizons.