EA to "Double Down" on Star Wars

When it was announced that Disney had struck a deal with EA so they would be the only ones to make official Star Wars games, people were nervous. And that anxiety was ultimately well-founded: at least two high-profile single-player Star Wars games were shut down in the first few years of the partnership, and the first major release under the partnership, Star Wars Battlefront, was underwhelming by all accounts. This problem was only made worse by the release of Star Wars Battlefront 2, a game that mired so much controversy that even Disney reportedly called up EA and asked what the heck was going on.

But a lot has happened since then: EA fixed up Battlefront 2 to be less evil and have a lot more content. They released a mobile game. And they published their first full single-player Star Wars game, Jedi Fallen Order, which has sold over 10 million copies. So after a rough start, the deal is finally starting to work out, and now EA CEO Andrew Wilson is wasting no time running a few victory laps with GameSpot.

"Up is my hope--up and to the right, we have a tremendous relationship with Disney. We have a tremendous relationship with Lucas. We have a longstanding relationship with them going all the way back to Star Wars The Old Republic that we launched in 2011. 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 with Squadrons as well. We're going to double down on that partnership. Disney continues to be very very committed to the IP and to the canon."

He underlined that canon bit, apparently quite pleased that EA is in the unique position of being able to create stories, characters, and locations that are now “canonical” to the Star Wars universe. Which suggests that maybe ol’ Wilson is a bit of a fanboy.

Still, I wouldn’t be too hyped until we see more of Squadrons – it’s never too late for EA to mess it up. Again.