May the 4th be with you: 40 years of Star Wars games

With Star Wars, George Lucas created the most financially successful franchise to date (Forbes Magazine, 2005). In Germany, Star Wars was marketed under the name “Star Wars” and also enjoys a huge following in this country. On 4.5. Star Wars Day is always celebrated under the motto “May the 4th be with you”.

Star Wars Background: Movies

The start of Star Wars was more than difficult. The constant battle of good versus evil in Lucas’ fairy tales was initially spurned. As early as 1973, George Lucas designed the exposé for Star Wars, with which he visited numerous film studios and asked for funding for his dream. Only 20th Century Fox gave the young and now extremely rich Lucas a chance. In 1974 he began working on the first screenplay, which resulted in a feature film in 1977. This was realized under the most difficult conditions and on a small budget, but it is the reason for the current success of the franchise.

Star Wars Background: Studio

To date, numerous films have been made, which are summarized as three trilogies and spin-offs and have been very successful at the box office. This fortunate circumstance not only allowed George Lucas to sell his empire to Disney in 2012, but also to set up his own game studio many years earlier. Formerly known as Lucasfilm Games, its name was then Lucas Arts until it closed in 2013 – shortly after the acquisition.

In 1982 Lucas founded this studio, which quickly made a name for itself and developed games based on the Star Wars films from the early 90s. Thanks to the license, which was free from the parent company, and a healthy budget, games about rebels and imperials were created here. It wasn’t until 2005 that more games were produced outside of the company due to restructuring.

Success has fluctuated and after Disneys took over the business in 2012, the games studio came to an end in 2013. The games were initially licensed exclusively to Electronic Arts before other studios were commissioned with content starting in 2019. Presumably the debacle surrounding Star Wars Battlefront 2 was once crucial.

Today, Disney is once again using Lucasfilm Games as a brand and hub for licensing activities for the Star Wars games, as well as the rest of the brands that were once part of the acquisition – Indiana Jones, Monkey Island and Co.

Star Wars Background: Games

The era of Star Wars games began very early on, when computers were still gray beasts that most people didn’t understand very well. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was released in 1982 as the first Star Wars-related game. Many more games followed, most of which were quality titles. Hardly any other franchise can look back on such a history. With Rebel Assault, Lucas Arts was even able to influence computer hardware. Stunning by the standards of the time, the game was shipped on CD-ROM, which was not a standard feature on any PC at the time. In 1993 the dealers often said: “One Rebel Assault and a CD-ROM drive, please”.