14 DAY TRIAL // Entertainment company Lucasfilm and the LEGO Group have renewed their licensing deal linked to the Star Wars intellectual property, which means that toys and video games linked to the well-known franchise will continue to be developed and launched during the coming ten-year period.
The two companies have not disclosed the exact value of the new deal and the exact plans linked to the future of Star Wars in toy form. But Jill Wilfert, who is the vice president in charge of entertainment products at the LEGO Group, has stated that Star Wars was a core franchise for the company.
The LEGO Group initially acquired the rights to the Star Wars series back in 1999, when Lucasfilm was getting ready to launch Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
Since then LEGO has created toys based on the three prequel movies, which have been a financial success, and in 2005 launched the first LEGO Star Wars video game.
The core experience was developed by Traveller's Tales and arrived on the Game Boy Advance handheld, the PlayStation 2, the first Xbox, the Nintendo GameCube and since received versions for the PC and the Mac.
Later the LEGO Group launched three more video games using bricks to re-create the original series, the prequel movies and the more recent Clone Wars animation series.
Combined sales for the LEGO Star Wars video game series have gone past the 30 million units sold worldwide mark.
After the success of LEGO Star Wars, the Group became more interested in the video game market and has since used its resources to create titles based on other well-known intellectual properties, like Harry Potter, Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones.
At the moment, no LEGO-based video games are confirmed as being in development although the company might be preparing something using 3D, maybe on the Nintendo 3DS, in order to take advantage of the re-launch of the core movie series.