EA DICE has announced the creation of a new studio in Los Angeles which will focus on the Star Wars franchise and will possibly see the return of established Star Wars game IPs including the Battlefront series.
So.. we are expanding. twitter.com/EA_DICE/status…
— EA_DICE (@EA_DICE) May 15, 2013
The news comes after EA signed an exclusive deal with Lucasfilm and Disney which saw the company pick up the exclusive right to develop Star Wars games over a multi-year basis. BioWare and Visceral will also be making games for the Star Wars saga.
The studio will have 60 staff by the end of the year and yes the stated goal of "poaching talent from rivals like Activision Blizzard."
DICE's general manager, Karl Magnus Troedsson, revealed that the decision to expand the studio to LA was a no-brainer commenting "There is an extreme talent pool over [there] that we want a part of. It's no secret that our main competitor is there."
Troedsson was of course referring to Call of Duty developers Treyrach and Infinity Ward.
No Star Wars games are expected during fiscal year 2014 which ends on March 31st 2014. Developers at Danger Close, the studio behind the scrapped Medal of Honor reboot, have been integrated into the new studio along with "outside" talent. It's unclear at this time if the studio will relaunch existing Star Wars IPs or launch new ones.
Source: The Wall Street Journal.
