Electronic Arts

"For some reason EA was negotiating with Lucas/Disney, as to whom should make the new Star Wars games. And just a week later it was like, 'Oh, by the way, that discussion you were having about Star Wars? Do you want to make it?'"

- Patrick Bach, executive producer at DICE

Electronic Arts (EA) is an American developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of computer and video games established in 1982 by Trip Hawkins. EA grew from a home computing game publisher in 1987 they began developing games in-house. In the early 1990s EA began to develop games for consoles. EA has bought various successful developers and is since the early 2000s has been one of the largest third-party publishers.

EA is known for various series and labels including EA Sports, Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, The Sims, Command & Conquer and the later games in the Burnout series. Many notable and popular games have been published through EA.

Electronic Arts developed, through their acquisition of BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

On May 6, 2013, Disney and EA jointly announced that EA will hold exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games for the next several years. New games will be developed across several of their studios, including Star Wars: Battlefront by DICE and an untitled game by Visceral Games. Additionally, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be continually maintained under the agreement, with frequent content updates and expansion pack releases.

In addition to creating original Star Wars games with the license, Electronic Arts has the ability to add Star Wars-themed content to their other products. The first product to include Star Wars branded content was The Sims 4, releasing costumes of Princess Leia, Yoda, Darth Vader, and a Rebel pilot on October 1, 2014