EA had the exclusive rights to develop Star Wars games for quite some time. However, that didn’t exactly mean that these were always critically and commercially acclaimed. In contrast, there seemed to be just as many negatives as positives throughout much of this exclusivity.
While it had the highs of Jedi: Fallen Order, there were also controversies surrounding loot boxes and a lack of content in several of their franchise-focused games. Subsequently, this resulted in Disney – which owns all Star Wars-related media and merchandise rights – removing this exclusivity.
While this meant that other developers would be able to develop the games, it was left unclear as to whether EA could continue doing so. Whether or not this would be the case, however, was addressed in a recent investor call with the company. Speaking in that conference call, CEO Andrew Wilson said that stakeholders “shouldn’t read this as us necessarily building less titles.”
In contrast, he said that we should imagine the fact that with other devs making Star Wars games, their commitment to the IP might change.
“I don’t think you should imagine that the fact that some other people will build some Star Wars games is going to change our commitment to that IP, or our ability to build the appropriate number of games.”
Wilson also noted that the relationship with Disney had been profitable, overall. He added that he sees no reason why this shouldn’t continue going forward.
“We’ve had a long partnership with Disney, both before our exclusive period that gave us a great opportunity to really establish some very strong franchises like Battlefront, like Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, like Jedi: Fallen Order, like Squadrons—you should expect us to continue to invest in our Star Wars relationship. It’s been very profitable to this point—over $3 billion in net bookings—and we’re excited about what we’ll be able to do in the future.”
Jedi: Fallen Order was one of EA’s more successful games in recent years. However, it came not long after a few stumbling blocks with the likes of Battlefront and Battlefront 2 in their initial releases. However, the studio does have a head start on other developers, as they more than likely had Star Wars games in some stage of development before they had their exclusivity removed.
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