During EA’s Q2 2023 earnings call, the company addressed the recent deal with Marvel and how the decision to enter into another partnership with Disney was driven by the success from the company’s previous deal with Star Wars.
During the call, EA was asked if it could offer more details about the recently announced deal with Marvel that will see EA work on three Marvel games starting with EA Motive’s Iron Man game. While EA declined to go into that much more detail, the company said that it is seeking to be a “cooperative” and creative partnership rather than a “transactional” one.
Furthermore, the decision to sign a new deal with Disney was a result of the previous Star Wars deal where EA says “over 40 percent of Star Wars players went on to play other EA games.”
In 2013 EA signed a ten-year deal allowing the company to exclusively make Star Wars games for Lucasfilms. This deal resulted in moderate hits like Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, and Star Wars: Squadrons, as well as the critical hit Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The latter is set to receive a sequel in 2023 titled, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
According to EA, this Star Wars deal should be considered an overall success given the interest it generated in players to play EA’s other games and it looks like the publisher is hoping for a repeat with Marvel.
EA’s deal with Marvel isn’t quite as long as the one for Star Wars. EA has agreed to make at least three action adventure games based on Marvel comics. The first game has already been announced and it’s the Iron Man game from EA Motive. It will tell an original story set in the Marvel universe.
Whether this new game will be similarly beneficial to EA remains to be seen. But otherwise, EA spent most of the financials talking about the success of the most recent FIFA game which continues to grow year-over-year.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.