Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 for a little over $4 billion – a purchase that has proven an excellent deal in the ensuing years.
However, one area where things have been more of a mixed bag has been the video game side where EA have been exclusively publishing games set within the franchise since the merger.
Seeking Alpha reports that during a recent EA earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson revealed that their “Star Wars” game titles have resulted in more than $3 billion in revenue and 52 million games sold.
Wilson says: “We have generated a number of great franchises, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Galaxy of Heroes, Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order and most recently, Squadrons… Galaxy of Heroes is a $1 billion franchise.”
Wilson touted the revenue figures but didn’t go into the critical or audience reaction to the titles which have been more mixed. EA came under heavy fire for the disastrous “Star Wars: Battlefront II” microtransaction scandal which made global headlines.
They also made it clear in the past that they had little interest in doing single-player titles in the franchise until they were effectively pushed by consumers to do “Jedi: Fallen Order” which got strong reviews and sales. The more recent “Squadrons” didn’t fare so well.
EA recently lost exclusivity to the franchise with Lucasfilm Games being set up to handle the development of the studio’s various franchises into video games in the future. EA’s rival Ubisoft is already working on an open-world “Star Wars” game being developed by Massive Entertainment, but that game won’t come until after their “The Avatar Project” game is done.
EA remains committed to making “Star Wars” games through with recent rumors they are developing a smaller shooter game title set in the franchise. The company also recently acquired mobile game developer Glu Mobile (“Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” “MLB Tap Sports Baseball”) in a deal worth $2.1 billion.