Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds announced

LucasArts Entertainment today announced that it has formed an alliance with Ensemble Studios, the developer of the popular Age of Empires game series, to develop Star Wars Battleground, a real-time strategy game set in the Star Wars universe. The game will be designed by both LucasArts and Ensemble Studios, and it will be built on Ensemble's proprietary game engine. The agreement between the companies also extends to future strategy games, which will use new technologies developed by Ensemble and will also be set in the Star Wars universe.

Simon Jeffrey, president of LucasArts, sees the agreement as the birth of a leading game franchise. He commented, "From the first time I played Age of Empires, I knew someday LucasArts and Ensemble should work together." Jeffrey went on to say, "We are providing a marriage of superlative design, consummate technology, and an IP-based gaming universe with which most of the Western world is familiar."

Ensemble Studios CEO Tony Goodman is also pleased with the partnership. "The passion and talent of the LucasArts team blends well with our real-time strategy game expertise to make the Star Wars universe a compelling and fun game experience," he said.

Star Wars Battleground is scheduled for release this fall. We'll have more information about the game soon.