A lot has been made over the past few weeks about the changes going on at LucasArts, with Disney opting to go with a publishing model, rather than develop the games themselves. Today we entered into a new era of Star Wars video game development as Lucasfilm and Electronic Arts (EA) signed a multi-year agreement, giving EA exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games. Various EA studio divisions will be involved in developing games including DICE, Bioware, and Visceral.
In the official announcement, EA Labels President Frank Gibeau had this to say, "Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe. Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay."
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy also stated, "Our number one objective was to find a developer who could consistently deliver our fans great Star Wars games for years to come. When we looked at the talent of the teams that EA was committing to our games and the quality of their vision for Star Wars, the choice was clear."
You can read the full announcement over at StarWars.com