The future of Star Wars’ long and occasionally fruitful flirtation with our fair medium has been uncertain since LucasArts vanished in a puff of financial logic just over a month ago. Not so now. EA have inked a deal which gives them exclusive license to publish and develop “core” Star Wars games, and have handed the keys to three of their favourite children: DICE, Visceral, and BioWare.
The deal means EA will be responsible for Star Wars games that cater to the “core gaming audience,” while Disney will retain rights to the mobile and social sphere they’ve become so fond of lately.
New games are already in the works at DICE and at Dead Space types Visceral, and the KOTOR series looks set to stay with series originators BioWare.
“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.”
No word yet on whether EA plan to pick up the pieces of third-person cover-hugger Star Wars 1313 or the Battlefrontish Star Wars: First Assault, both left on LucasArts’ studio floor at the time of its demise. But they seem more likely to join Battlefront 3 in the pile of tantalising never-has-beens.
What would you like to see crawl its way out of EA’s sarlaac pit in the next couple of years? A DICE-developed Battlefront sequel? A single player KOTOR?
Thanks, Kotaku.