According to the Wall Street Journal, Electronic Arts is opening a new DICE studio in Los Angeles, California that will primarily be focused on developing the company’s upcoming string of licensed Star Wars games.
The report notes that DICE LA is hoping to dip into the “extreme talent pool” that is located in the Los Angeles area, by picking up 60 new employees before 2013 is out. Currently, Activision is heavily invested in the same region, with both Infinity Ward and Treyarch (the tag team co-developers of the Call of Duty franchise) based in California.
“There is an extreme talent pool over [there] that we want to be a part of,” said DICE General Manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson. “It’s no secret our main competitor is there.”
The LA studio will be run by DICE (the team behind EA’s popular Battlefield franchise), but we still do not have any information on the new Star Wars games that the team will be working on. Troedsson noted that their first goal will be “recruiting talent,” and then they will look “at either creating an entirely new experience or piggybacking on an older Star Wars game series.”
This is just speculation on our part, but Troedsson’s statement seems to leave open the possibility that DICE LA could re-develop and release Star Wars 1313 and/or Star Wars: First Assault using the Frostbite 3 engine. Additionally, DICE’s history with Battlefield would seem to suggest that this might be our best shot at having the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise resurrected, with a Frostbite 3 version of the canceled Star Wars: Battlefront III.
Wouldn’t that be a nice little surprise kickoff for Electronic Arts’ upcoming licensed Star Wars games!