Star Wars games will now be gathered together under the revitalized Lucasfilm Games banner. An announcement today on StarWars.com highlights the new Lucasfilm Games logo, which will appear in all future titles surrounding the Star Wars franchise. A new sizzle reel highlights some of those existing licensed titles, ranging from Star Wars Battlefront II to Sims 4: Journey to Batuu.
Gamers of a certain age may remember the Lucasfilm Games brand from the ’70s and ’80s, when it was used for original, internally developed games ranging from Rescue on Fractalus! to Maniac Mansion. The Games Group got folded into the newly formed LucasArts in 1990, a brand that became known for dozens of games, including many classic PC adventure titles.
By the time Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012, downsizing at LucasArts was already well underway, with the company mostly handling licensing for Star Wars games developed at other companies. Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger noted that the company was “likely to focus more on social and mobile than we are on console” for games going forward, which wasn’t seen as a great sign for LucasArts or its Star Wars 1313 action-adventure game project.
Six months later, Disney made the end official by announcing it was shutting down LucasArts and getting out of internal video game development altogether. A few months after that, Electronic Arts announced that it had acquired a multiyear licensing agreement for exclusive rights to publish Star Wars video games.
Today’s rebranding announcement doesn’t mean Disney or Lucasfilm is getting back into direct game development; the announcement notes that future titles will continue to be “developed in collaboration with the finest studios across the industry.” The announcement doesn’t make mention of any previous, non-Star Wars LucasArts properties, a handful of which have started to reappear as remastered titles in recent years.
Right now, the only confirmed Lucasfilm Games project for 2021 is Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which collects previous family action releases based on episodes I through IX. EA has also suggested that 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order was the start of “an entirely new franchise,” though additional details regarding a sequel have yet to be announced.
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