EA (Dice/Visceral) are going to make Star Wars games

BURBANK & REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) and Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: 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.

Via EA

I'm excited, I just want to play more Star Wars games at some point...don't really care who makes them, and DICE and Visceral are pretty good studios.

Star Wars Battlefront made by the guys who make Battlefield is something I would be okay with.

Cool

So maybe Dice make Battlefront and Viseral (hopefully) save 1313? This could work.

Will see how it works out. Hopefully EA being involved won't mean Origin exclusive crap.

why does EA get to be the only publisher making them? Why can't Raven do another or Obsidian? :(

yes,yes I know. money.

I'm not a fan of this....

@generiko said:

Well, Obsidian could work on a Star Wars game with EA, Raven not so much...

That... is an excellent point.

If Dice makes Battlefront III this would be awesome. It sucks that LucasArts shut down but at least Star Wars games wont stop being made and they wont just be social games from Disney. I'm going to stay positive with this one and see where they take the license. Here's hoping this results in some good games!

Awww man, probably the one company I DON'T want to touch anything SW related. I guess this is ok since it means we'll get games, but the exclusive licensing deal with the NFL has done bad things for Madden, so I'm not optimistic about this one.

Battlefront 3 by Dice and Peggle: Star Wars is all I ask.

Any deal that might let Battlefront III see the light of day is a-okay with me.

I'm just going to out myself as a huge hypocrite: If EA makes a new X-Wing game I would buy it no matter how awful the DRM around it is, at least if the game is any good.

Buuuhut seeing how this will never, ever, ever happen I'm probably fine.

Star Wars Battlefront III using Frostbite 2 is a pretty exciting proposition.

Yes! Money in the bank.

I still don't think Battlefront will get made by EA. But if you squint at a new Swea game, the minutia like reloading and stuff, might have that Battlefront feel.

The only thing I want is a new (offline!) Star Wars RPG. I don't care if it's Obsidian working with EA or just Bioware making it but I'm playing through the first KotoR at the moment and it's still totally playable and pretty awesome except for the visuals of course.

Alright Bioware, do a good Star Wars game this time, not a stupid fucking MMO

I just want to get a KoTOR style RPG out of this. I'm not interested in a star wars skinned battlefield FPS or whatever TPS visceral ends up making.

Give me a proper kotar sequel. I will buy 4 copies myself. Or give me a Star Wars game with a similar structure to mass effect, I'd be good with that

Also I agree with everyone: Dice+Battlefront would be perfect.

Dead babies confirmed?

Bioware and Star Wars are together again?

Worst case scenario. No thank you on that.

Firemonkeys developed podracing game for iOS devices! Booya!

You're entitled to your opinion even if it's wrong. I thought we were over this Mass Effect hate thing already?

The last five minutes of that game I spent about 40 hours playing were bad. I'll *never* get over that.

This has zero, ZERO, to do with the structure of the game. Especially since the structure is every Bioware game. Including KOTOR.

Worst case scenario? So dramatic.

A DICE Battlefront would be awesome.

I'm down.

Dice's BF4 will be renamed to Battlefront 4.

I like Jeff's idea of a Star Wars Parkour game

I'd kill a motherfucker to get another Republic Commando made.

If DICE made Battlefront 3 then my life would be complete, I'm sure the original makers of Battlefield would stay true to the franchise.

I guess it fits, Medal of Honor and Deadspace are both at least probably taking long breaks. Though EA could also just lay-off more of the studios that are more or less devastating their bottom lines. Hopefully there are more games in the star wars universe that do not rely so heavily on the force/jedi side of it, and actually explore the imperial/republic life and larger fiction.

Star Wars is probably still at least a decade from being irrelevant, but some parts of that fiction are just so bloody mined out that it is difficult to care. That said, if they parlay this into kids games it will probably be a good move. As a parent type situation I could easily see picking up a star wars game for children as being more appealing than playing one personally. So that would be a way to hook into nostalgia still.

I like a bunch of games EA makes. I'm not so hot on all of their practices, but I am okay with this. Hopefully we get some cool games out of it. Of course, we could just get some Harry Potter-level cash-grabs with each new movie as well, but whatever I don't particularly care one way or another if we get another good Star Wars game or not, ultimately.

Though I would love a high quality Mass Effect game from Bioware, screw the haters.

So future Star Wars games will look fucking great but will nickel and dime the living hell out of people, nice.

Soooo.... how about that KOTOR 3....

DICE making Battlefront makes sense because Star Wars Battlefront pretty much was Battlefield 1942, only made by a different developer and with a Star Wars skin.

Are you telling me that five bad minutes of an otherwise great series (well, a series with two great entries and one OK entry) ruined the whole thing for you? Why didn't the basic story of Mass Effect 2 ruin it for you or, hell, the cheeseball dialogue that is present in all three of them?

Besides, the structure of all three Mass Effect games follows the Bioware formula to the letter.

No, I was sarcastically echoing the sentiments of those who disliked the game almost entirely because of its ending. I mean really, did it sound like an argument a sane person would make?

This is a little off-topic but does this deal between EA and Disney mean that other Star Wars games on other services like Wii Virtual Console and Steam are going to be taken off?

Can't be any worse then lucasarts one game a decade model.