Over the last year or so, EA have handled their exclusive Star Wars license than the shoddy work they had been doing with it for much of this generation. Not only have they managed to turn things around for Star Wars Battlefront 2, last year’s Jedi: Fallen Order was also an incredible success, while the upcoming Star Wars: Squadrons also looks promising.
And EA have every intention of doubling down on the success they have found with the license. Speaking in a recent investors call (via VGC), EA CEO Andrew Wilson commented on the success EA have seen with many different kinds of Star Wars games. Noting their strong working relationship with Disney and LucasArts, Wilson said that EA plans to “double down on that partnership.”
“I would say again, we have a tremendous relationship with Disney [and] we have a tremendous relationship with LucasArts – we have a long-standing relationship with them going all the way back to Star Wars: The Old Republic, which we launched in 2011,” Wilson said. “We’ve had success in first-person shooters, in RPGs, in action-adventure, in MMORPGs, in mobile and I believe we’re going to have success in Squadrons as well.
“So again, I think that we’re going to double down on that partnership. Disney continues to be very, very committed to the IP and the canon, and continue to create new content.”
EA CFO Blake Jorgensen also commented on the success of Respawn’s Jedi: Fallen Order during the call, saying that the foundation thee game laid down with its story and characters is something EA can build upon “for many years to come.”
“Vince [Zampella]’s team on Jedi: Fallen Order built an incredible partnership with Lucas and were able to build new characters and content that had never been seen, which is rare in the history of Star Wars,” he said. “It just shows the creative partnership that we’ve built and credit to Vince, Stig [Asmussen] and the team… they’ve built a foundation for things that we could do there for many years to come.”
It’s worth noting that EA have explicitly said that last year’s Fallen Order was the first game in a new franchise. Meanwhile, job listings have also suggested that work on a new Star Wars game is already underway at Respawn.
Meanwhile, Star Wars: Squadrons will be releasing for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 2, and will be fully playable in VR on PC and PS4. It will cost $40, won’t feature any loot boxes or microtransactions, and is supposedly not being designed as a live service game.
