Earlier this week, an announcement came out that delighted me greatly. As from the title, Lucasfilm Games is once again in business. Oh, it was always in business as LucasArts since the Disney takeover, with a skeleton crew acting as a licensor of the brand. They’ve worked mostly with EA across these last seven years to bring authenticity to their Star Wars games, but now things are getting bigger.
The name of LucasArts has once again become Lucasfilm Games, and it seems they are intent on making the most of this new era for the gaming division of the company. The end of the announcement article of this new era stated to keep an eye out for news coming soon, and it seemed they wanted to prove they are serious about this rebranding through a number of announcements.
The following day announced that a new Indiana Jones game was in development at MachineGames, executive produced by Todd Howard of Bethesda Games Studios. It’s been a long time since any other Lucasfilm IP got a chance to shine as a video game. Whatever this game turns out to be, it’s got a great team working on it, and should be able to explore the whip-cracking world of Indy in a way we haven’t seen before.
Then, the day after that came the interview that really solidified their commitment to reviving what once had been. Douglas Reilly to the Star Wars homesite said they’d been working quietly behind the scenes for a while, waiting for the right time to reveal all. And the doors are now open for any developers to come and play within the galaxy far, far away.
The first studio to get in on this is Massive Entertainment, under ownership of Ubisoft, with a story-driven, open world experience. Just how big of a world, and just what that world entails, is still unknown, but a year of talks to find out what they want to bring to this universe is met with Reilly saying they’re excited to see what can be delivered, so I hold hopes it will be one to watch.
The interview says that EA aren’t being thrown to the side, either, as such a partnership is still a strong one, especially after Jedi: Fallen Order and the redemption of Battlefront 2. There’s a few projects teased to be in development at EA, but nothing it being revealed as of yet. The two games mentioned above are certain to be getting sequels, however, but it’s the new stuff that I’m wanting to see the most of.
These announcements are everything I have been hoping for – ever since Disney first acquired Lucasfilm back in 2013. I might have been happy for EA to be getting the licence, but the lack of games had been felt across the community – especially on consoles and most especially on Nintendo consoles. Exclusivity hurt the variety and unique takes on the universe that had been seen before the acquisition, That, however, is set to change.
This new era should bring a wealth of new experiences for Star Wars, where some of those ideas I’ve been talking of in previous articles might even become reality. And with Indiana Jones getting a new lease of life, maybe it’s also possible for some of the older IP of Lucasfilm get the revival treatment. Perhaps in the future, we might also see a new gaming-focused IP come from this. Reilly certainly hints at that happening, with the line of announcing projects that live up to the legacy of the old Lucasfilm Games.
From that interview, I do hold hope that the next few years will bring a resurgence of gaming goodness. With the floodgates open for developers to jump within the galaxy far, far away, there should be a lot of choice. A lot of variety in the experiences we as fans can enjoy. With LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga releasing soon, and a new EA project at the end of the year, and all those announcements yet to come, that resurgence starts now.
