Today Ubisoft (UBSFF 4.12%) and Walt Disney (DIS +1.66%) announced a collaboration that ought to excite gamers everywhere: Ubisoft will develop a new Star Wars game. "The vast Star Wars lore is an incredible source of inspiration for our teams," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in a press release. "This is the beginning of a long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm Games, and we are pleased to be working hand-in-hand to build upon the incredible legacy of Lucasfilm to create a game that we know Star Wars fans will love."
The new Star Wars game will be created by Massive Entertainment, the Ubisoft studio based in Sweden. Massive is best known for Tom Clancy's The Division and its sequel, Tom Clancy's The Division 2, both major properties for Ubisoft. Massive has been working for years on developing a game based on Avatar, a property Disney acquired in 2019. An early trailer suggests how amazing that game will be (and how powerful Massive's Snowdrop engine is for game development).
Image source: Walt Disney.
Of course Star Wars is one of the most important media properties owned by Disney. With the exception of Solo, all of the Star Wars films released by Disney have brought in $1 billion or more at the box office.
The Star Wars universe has been a major pillar for Entertainment Arts, a video game company known largely for its sports titles. It's had an exclusive collaboration with Disney for Star Wars games since 2013, but now the House of Mouse is seeking other partners.
Ubisoft stock is up 5% on the news.
