In a Galaxy Far Far Away, the possibilities of video game storytelling are as endless as the stars. Today, in a surprise announcement, Disney and Lucasfilm announced a rebranding of their venture into video games and Star Wars. Lucasfilm Games will now be the center of all things Star Wars video games, including new game announcements and development updates.
The news comes via a blog post on the official Star Wars website, along with a sizzle reel showcasing what has been accomplished since Disney acquired Star Wars in October 2012. The sizzle reel doesn’t reveal anything new but does show the path that has followed so far. This began with Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and continuing with Star Wars: Battlefront. Next was Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, and ending with Star Wars: Squadrons. The blog post reveals that as Lucasfilm enters a new and unprecedented era of storytelling and creativity, so will Lucasfilm Games.
The rebranding announcement, while not offering any new details at this time, does unravel answers and give clues for what is next. Shortly after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm, LucasArts, the video game arm of the brand, was essentially shuttered, with a large multitude of layoffs. Existing projects, such as the much-beloved Star Wars 1313, were canceled and never saw the light of day. Around that time, Disney announced a partnership with international video game conglomerate Electronic Arts to be the primary developer and distributor of Star Wars video games for the next decade. While there have been other Star Wars pursuits in gaming, such as Vader Immortal, EA has only been able to push out four titles: Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, and Star Wars: Squadrons. In the last few years, despite the various successes of these games, EA was met with heavy criticism of its handling of the Star Wars IP, especially in 2017, as EA shuttered several studios and introduced game-breaking microtransactions in Star Wars: Battlefront II. Fortunately, EA has turned around and completely dismissed using microtransactions in their Star Wars games.
It appears with the rebranding of Lucasfilm Games, Lucasfilm is poised to introduce the Star Wars IP’s to other developers in the gaming sphere. This would be excellent, as it could potentially introduce not only new stories to be told but also new gameplay types. Before LucasArts was rendered defunct, the team allowed work on a large variety of Star Wars games, from spaceship combat to real-time strategy. With the climate of today’s video games, there simply doesn’t appear to be a reason not to have a large variety of Star Wars games. Given the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that the next Star Wars movie won’t arrive until 2023, the time is poised for Star Wars to expand into other directions in video games,
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