Star Wars' Relationship With EA Games Continues Despite New Deals

The start to this year has certainly been a good one for Star Wars fans. With the recent release of Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi and more projects in the High Republic set to launch soon, the future of Star Wars is bright.

That prospect is especially true for Star Wars video games. Lucasfilm Games was recently established as the umbrella entity that will oversee future video games based on Lucasfilm’s properties.

Today, it was confirmed that an open-world Star Wars game from Ubisoft is in development. Fans of Electronic Arts' Star Wars games shouldn’t be worried, however, as StarWars.com revealed some promising news today.

NEWS

After announcing that future Star Wars games will be created by various publishers and developers, Lucasfilm Games confirmed today that Electronic Arts will continue to develop games for the Star Wars brand.

In an interview with StarWars.com, Vice President of Lucasfilm Games Douglas Reilly reaffirmed the brand's positive relationship with EA, saying:

“We’re really proud of the games we have created with EA … We will continue working with them and our relationship has never been stronger. While we may not have a lot of details to share at the moment, we’ve got a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA.”

StarWars.com clarified that for every future Star Wars video game, including ones made by EA, Lucasfilm Games will “continue to guide titles from the franchise perspective, from ensuring Star Wars authenticity to story connectivity within the larger saga.”

Reilly continued to speak about this partnership with developers and publishers, saying:

“We try and help them leverage their passion, expertise, and idea by bringing our expertise around the IP, our ability to connect with other parts of Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company, to amplify that. To make it even bigger than they might imagine … We want to uncover the stories they’ve always imagined telling and make them resonate with our fans, and across the wider Star Wars galaxy.”

EA’s exclusivity deal is set to expire in 2023. At that point, Lucasfilm Games will begin to release games created by other publishers as well as EA.

Update: After the announcement of EA's ongoing relationship with Lucasfilm Games, EA expressed its excitement about its future Star Wars video games. The full tweet can be found below:

✅ We love Star Wars.
✅ We look forward to continuing our partnership with Lucasfilm Games.
✅ We’re making more Star Wars games.
✅ BD-1 is still the cutest.

— Electronic Arts (@EA) January 13, 2021

 

WHAT THIS MEANS

Reilly’s quotes confirm that EA will continue creating Star Wars video games even after its exclusivity deal lapses. Franchises like Star Wars: Battlefront and Star Wars: Squadrons are likely to continue given their popularity. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sold incredibly well when it released in 2019, and it received praise from critics and fans alike, so future installments in that franchise are also likely.

Several journalists covering the gaming industry have begun to compare Lucasfilm Games to Marvel Games, which collaborates with different publishers to create Marvel-related video games. It seems that this is becoming a fair comparison to make given the announcement of an open-world Ubisoft Star Wars game and more EA Star Wars titles on the way.