EA acquires LEGO Star Wars Battles developer

EA has acquired the developer behind LEGO Star Wars Battles, possibly explaining why the mobile game is shutting down before even officially releasing.

The iOS and Android title – which allows players to collect characters and pit heroes and villains against one another in familiar Star Wars locations – is currently in early access, but will shut down on July 1 before it ever reaches a wider release.

The news came courtesy of an in-game message late last month, but with no context as to why the mobile app was closing down. It’s now come to light that publisher EA has acquired Playdemic – the studio behind LEGO Star Wars Battles, originally acquired by LEGO video game developer TT Games in 2017 – for a staggering $1.4 billion.

Playdemic is also responsible for the incredibly popular Golf Clash, which is available on iOS, Android and Facebook, has been downloaded more than 80 million times, and has scooped up all manner of industry awards. The acquisition is apparently part of EA’s ‘mobile growth strategy’ – a strategy that seemingly doesn’t include continuing development of LEGO Star Wars Battles.

Warner Bros. Games still owns TT Games, TT Fusion and TT Odyssey, the latter of which concentrates on mobile titles. We’re still waiting on a first title from them, though, or any kind of LEGO video game across all three studios since 2018’s LEGO DC Super-Villains, while the heavily-anticipated LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga seemingly spins its wheels.

For a more immediate LEGO video game fix, check out LEGO Builder’s Journey from Light Brick Studio, which has just arrived on PC and Nintendo Switch.

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