Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

Star Wars has made $3bn for EA

Electronic Arts' exclusive partnership with Disney over Star Wars has generated $3 billion in revenue so far. That's ac…

www.gamesindustry.biz

Electronic Arts' exclusive partnership with Disney over Star Wars has generated $3 billion in revenue so far.

That's according to CEO Andrew Wilson, who also told investors during last night's earnings call that the publisher has sold 52 million units across its various Star Wars games, including Battlefront and its sequel, Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons.

Free-to-play mobile offering Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes accounts for $1 billion on its own, according to the Seeking Alpha transcript.

Benchmark Company analyst Mike Hickey asked if the lack of exclusivity meant EA would be producing fewer Star Wars games, to which Wilson responded:

"I don't think you should imagine that the fact that some other people will build some Star Wars games is going to change our commitment to that IP or our ability to build the appropriate number of games.

We've had a long partnership with Disney... You should expect us to continue to invest in our Star Wars relationship. It's been very profitable, to this point, over $3 billion in net bookings and we're excited by what we'll be able to do in the future. But you shouldn't read this as necessarily us building less titles."

 

[TVexperto]

how much did they pay for the license?

 

[Catphish]

how much did they pay for the license?

$4B

 

[Andodalf]

$4B

That’s was Disney paid for Star Wars.

 

[e&e]

$4B

If true, Yikes!

 

[vito_don_corleone_]

That’s was Disney paid for Star Wars.

If true, Yikes!

Why "yikes"? $4B looks like a great deal.

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago in a deal worth $4.05 billion and has already made back that investment with four Star Wars feature films that have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Andodalf]

Why "yikes"? $4B looks like a great deal.

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago in a deal worth $4.05 billion and has already made back that investment with four Star Wars feature films that have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office.

www.cnbc.com

These people think EA paid 4 bill lol

 

[e&e]

Why "yikes"? $4B looks like a great deal.

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago in a deal worth $4.05 billion and has already made back that investment with four Star Wars feature films that have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office.

www.cnbc.com

I thought that’s what EA paid...

 

[vito_don_corleone_]

These people think EA paid 4 bill lol

Yeah, that would be stupid.
Some people say EA spends "only" $100M per year for a FIFA licensing and think how much revenue they get from this game in comparison to Star Wars...

 

[Catphish]

Yeah, I'm an idiot. It wasn't 4B. I misread. Seems to be a trend with me lately. Apologies!

 

[Plantoid]

I'm all for a truly open world game where you could choose between bounty hunter, jedi, sith, imperial and so on...

 

[MiguelItUp]

Definitely can't help but assume their last Star Wars title will be a Battlefront sequel. At least I want it to be, and I'm hoping for the best one yet that's nothing like the previous two.

 

[mcz117chief]

I'm all for a truly open world game where you could choose between bounty hunter, jedi, sith, imperial and so on...

Star Wars Galaxies? Star Wars the Old Republic?

Definitely can't help but assume their last Star Wars title will be a Battlefront sequel. At least I want it to be, and I'm hoping for the best one yet that's nothing like the previous two.

What is wrong with the previous two? They are incredible. The second one had a rough start with all the nonsense about unlocking heroes but right now it is an incredible shooter.

 

[b6a6es]

$4B

holy fuck, if true then its no wonder why they had low Star Wars output and not willing to renew the License

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

Does this account for the supposed 2 billion the star wars battlefront launched lost them?

 

[Catphish]

holy fuck, if true then its no wonder why they had low Star Wars output and not willing to renew the License

It's not true. I misread my source.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Star Wars Galaxies? Star Wars the Old Republic?



What is wrong with the previous two? They are incredible. The second one had a rough start with all the nonsense about unlocking heroes but right now it is an incredible shooter.

There was nothing wrong with them per se, I just feel like they could be a LOT better. There are mechanics that are completely absent that would really bring it all together.

 

[ZehDon]

$3b in revenue, a third of which is from a mobile game, but how much is profit? When handled well, Star Wars should be a licence to print money. They've had seven years - I'm sure Disney expected a lot more.

 

[down 2 orth]

EA bought Star Wars, confirmed?

 

[TheMay30thMan]

7 years and only 3 billion? Ouch.

 

[j0hnnix]

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Not that much considering COD Cold War generated 2 bil in 3 months on micro transactions alone lol.

 

[jakinov]

$3b in revenue, a third of which is from a mobile game, but how much is profit? When handled well, Star Wars should be a licence to print money. They've had seven years - I'm sure Disney expected a lot more.

Probably a lot of profit. I don't think the cost of the games are disclosed but it probably didn't cost a whole lot to make the mobile game. The first Star Wars game was just a multiplayer mode with some pretty basic mechanics which I'm assuming had a smaller budget than Battlefield 4 with a full campaign (with story writers, extra motion capturing and voice acting)and the second was likely more expensive. The other two games probably had bigger budgets. But I doubt that it was anything crazy that after marketing they'd have spent over a billion in costs.

Star Wars is a strong brand but even Disney on multiple occasions failed to "print money". They generated a lot of money (so did EA) but it's not like they wanted the main line Star Wars film revenue to decline after every movie or for Solo to not even break even.

It takes time to make AAA games. From the time that they get the deal. They aren't going to be able to push anything big out in until 3-4 years as games last gen have generally taken that long to develop. Then any sequels would take another 2-3 years.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Why "yikes"? $4B looks like a great deal.

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago in a deal worth $4.05 billion and has already made back that investment with four Star Wars feature films that have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office.

www.cnbc.com

Gross vs. Paid. Net profit on acquisition is much smaller.

 

[EDMIX]

7 years and only 3 billion? Ouch.

Thats pretty fucking good if you consider Disney simply licensed it to EA.

Starting to sound like MS is very much going to have no fucking issue making that 7 billion back lol Sounding very, very feasible.

told investors during last night's earnings call that the publisher has sold 52 million units across its various Star Wars games, including Battlefront and its sequel, Jedi: Fallen Order and Squadrons.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! No wonder they still have EA with that license. I knew they moved some serious units, but nothing like 52 million or something.

With Battlefield VI being made cross gen, I wonder if a Battlefront 3 2022 release will be next gen only, I also wonder if they are timing it with the release of Unreal Engine 5 to have Star Wars Fallen Order 2 ready for 2023 with a few years of ReSpawn using Unreal Real Engine 5. EA has a solid path to move some massive units in the coming years.

 

[Party McHardy]

Thank fuck the exclusivity deal is over is all I can say.

 

[TheMan]

1 billion from the mobile game alone. What times we live in.

 

[D.Final]

1 billion from the mobile game alone. What times we live in.

Indeed a big score

 

[BadBurger]

Disney really made three amazing acquisitions in the past few decades: Pixar, Marvel, Lucas Films & Games

The licensing deals (such as with EA in this case) and direct sales of merchandise alone probably recouped their costs within several years for each - especially Marvel and Lucas. Revenue from movies and TV shows are probably just gravy for them at this point.

 

[TheMay30thMan]

Thats pretty fucking good if you consider Disney simply licensed it to EA.

Starting to sound like MS is very much going to have no fucking issue making that 7 billion back lol Sounding very, very feasible.

Eh, I just thought they would have made a lot more from the juggernaut Star Wars property. 3 billion is still 3 billion more than I have.

 

[EDMIX]

Eh, I just thought they would have made a lot more from the juggernaut Star Wars property. 3 billion is still 3 billion more than I have.

Its really hard to say. We have no examples of other deals like this to really understand if its good or bad or if it could be better etc.

All we have is that Disney and EA made lots of money, EA will still be able to make Star Wars games (showing that Disney likes what they made and clearly EA likes what they made). I think thats as much as we can really get from this as this simply isn't a normal license. For 7 years, that is a massive amount of money and I can see why it was worth it to EA to get that license.

 

[Corgi1985]

Star wars galaxies was the best sandbox star wars game we ever had or will ever get. Your new future is 3rd person action games with highlighted ledges and bloated open worlds like the very bad Jedi: fallen blander