Star Wars games have generated more than three billion dollars for the American publisher Electronic Arts.
Games Star Wars developed at Electronic Arts will still be numerous, as President Andrew Wilson informed investors during the company’s latest financial report: “We won’t be announcing any new things regarding Star Wars at this time. But what I would say is if you look at our history with Star Wars, we’ve had a long and very profitable relationship, first with Lucasart or Lucasfilm, and then with Lucasfilm as part of Disney. We have generated a number of great franchises like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Galaxy of Heroes, Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order and most recently Squadrons. That’s over $ 3 billion in net bookings to date and 52 million games sold. And Galaxy of Heroes is a billion dollar franchise. As we have established some very strong elements of this franchise, you should expect that we will continue to invest in these as well as new experiences across all platforms going forward.”
DICE’s Star Wars: Battlefront marked EA’s first major outing in the space opera universe, but it failed to demonstrate the benefits of the arrangement with Disney. Two years later, that particular disappointment for many fans was followed by another, Battlefront 2, which notoriously found itself embroiled in a microtransaction controversy. Often criticized, EA’s management of the Star Wars brand, however, favored the appearance of Jedi: Fallen Order by Respawn Entertainment, a sort of Souls-like for the general public, and the space combat title from Motive Studios, Star Wars. : Squadrons, which was very well received by the press and the players.
Lucasfilm Games to multiply Star Wars games with various partners
For the record, while EA’s exclusivity deal for the Star Wars license doesn’t end until 2023, Disney via Lucasfilm Games is already in talks to partner with other developers. It has already started with Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment studio, which is working on a new open-world Star Wars game that will feature an original story. Another game by an “unlikely” studio is expected to be unveiled later this year.