US publishing giant Electronic Arts says it will still be making Star Wars games even after it has lots its exclusive use of the license.
Speaking to investors – as transcribed by Motley Fool – CEO Andrew Wilson (pictured) said that the collaboration with Disney on the IP had been fruitful and that we can expect more titles from a galaxy far, far away from EA.
In January, Disney revived its LucasFilm Games brand to oversee the use of its IP in video games. The firm has teamed up with Bethesda's MachineGames for a new Indiana Jones title, while Ubisoft's Massive studio is working on an open-world Star Wars release.
"We won't be announcing new things here. 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 LucasArts and then with -- or Lucasfilm and then with Lucasfilm as part of Disney," Wilson said.
"We have generated a number of great franchises, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Galaxy of Heroes, Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order and most recently, Squadrons. That represents over $3 billion life-to-date net bookings and 52 million games sold. And Galaxy of Heroes is a $1 billion franchise. As we've established the very strong part of that franchise, you should expect that we will continue to invest in those as well as some new experiences across platforms for the future.
"With respect to engagement more broadly, I think that we've seen strong engagement throughout the last year. Blake and I have both been relatively conservative, I think, as we look to the future at each moment in time, but we feel good about where engagement has been. And we now feel more confident that the increased engagement we've seen in our experiences is likely to continue on a go-forward basis. Blake, I don't know if you have any more to add to that."
EA landed the exclusive rights to make Star Wars games on PC and console back in 2013 following Disney dissolving LucasArts. Since then it has produced two Battlefront games from its DICE studio, as well as Respawn's Jedi: Fallen Order and Motive's Squadrons. BioWare Austin has been running The Old Republic MMO since 2010 – before the deal was struck – while EA has launched mobile title Galaxy of Heroes.
