EA has decided today to make some major announcements concerning both The Sims and the Disney owned Star Wars franchise, confirming futures for both series in the gaming world.
First off The Sims 4 has been announced for PC and Mac with a release point of sometime in 2014. Both Maxis and EA have stressed that the game will be a “single player offline experience” which isn’t surprising following the fallout from the SimCity always online issue. I suppose we have to give some credit to the company for learning from a past mistake.
The bigger news, in my opinion, is the deal Disney and EA have just announced stating that EA has been granted the license to produce future Star Wars games. This deal allows EA to publish games for a “core gaming audience” across all interactive platforms, while Disney retain the rights to games development within the social, mobile and tablet spheres.
“Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe,” said EA Labels President Frank Gibeau.
As well as BioWare working on the Star Wars license EA have also stated that DICE and Visceral will create new Star Wars titles.
“This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come,” said John Pleasants, Co-President of Disney Interactive. “Collaborating with one of the world’s premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world.”
The games themselves will be focusing on new stories outside of the film franchise. Whether this means EA will continue work on Star Wars 1313 and also revive Battlefront is unknown. Here’s an idea. Battlefront goes to DICE and 1313 to Visceral.
KeRaSh
Please let Visceral continue the development of Star Wars 1313. It’s a dark, mature game and Visceral know a thing or two about that…
KeRaSh
Wow, I totally forgot that EA doesn’t release games on Steam anymore… Well, I can only hope Star Wars 1313 comes to the PS4 (I really want 1313 to happen…)
Kevatron400
Star Wars / Mass Effect crossover. I’m calling it.
Eldur
That…
Would be…
EPIC.
Eldur
I can’t believe we’re twenty four posts in to a Star Wars / EA post and I’m the first person to say:
‘I’ve got a very bad feeling about this’.
KeRaSh
IT’S A TRAP!!
Broonba
I hope EA don’t fuck this up. Only time will tell.
The Lone Steven
Hmm, unsure what to feel about this. Bioware are known for what is said to be one of the best Star Wars games of all time, KOTR but they are past their prime and seem to slowly dying. But if anyone can pull off a decent Star Wars RPG, it’s them. On the other hand, it’s EA. Can see Dice doing Battlefront 3 or a clone of it but i suspect we will have massive patches. Hopefully, EA won’t allow another Star Wars Kinect. It will be interesting to see what EA will do with Star Wars.
the-sims-IV
With the previous fallout of SimCity, one would have though that this dealt Electronic Arts a major blow. So, this new deal on star wars games between Disney and EA comes somewhat as a surprise. Nonetheless, Sims 4 is set to be big because EA wouldn’t want to disappoint gamers once more.