EA hints at new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Third-party publishing behemoth Electronic Arts has this week issued a somewhat vague, periodically dull, and occasionally exciting glimpse at what videogame fans can expect to see hit retail shelves with EA’s logo stamped all over it for the 2009 fiscal year -- and beyond Electronic Arts reveals a gamut of fresh software set to arrive in the next couple of years. Credit: EA.

Electronic Arts reveals a gamut of fresh software set to arrive in the next couple of years. Credit: EA.Unsurprisingly, considering the company’s history in the sports genre, EA Sports president Peter Moore took the opportunity in a recent analyst meeting to outline that EA will be launching five new sporting titles, which do not include FaceBreaker or Playground.Moore offered that one of those five would be a casual IP (possibly mobile or download?) scheduled for release in fiscal 2009, while the remaining four titles would be core IPs (more likely to be console based) expected to launch before the close of fiscal 2011.

Credit: BioWare.

Given its reliance on massively profitable gaming franchises, EA shocked no one by announcing upcoming editions of its popular Burnout, skate, Need for Speed, Rock Band, The Sims, SimCity, and Lord of the Rings series. Pandemic would appear to be pencilled in to helm the latter.One notable piece of good news emerging from the meeting came in the form of BioWare (recently acquired by EA, along with Pandemic) being tasked with producing (yet more) Mass Effect, Dragon Age, a new MMO title, and also another Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic title.Other Electronic Arts IPs set to appear at some point in the future include a potential sequel to The Godfather, while a sequel to criminally undervalued shooter Black is also supposed to be in production with Criterion -- although recent Internet chatter has suggested that might not be the case.So, a little something for everyone there, no? Endlessly recycled sports, racing, and action franchise entries for the easily mollified, fresh moments of genuine greatness, and a smidge of hope for bigger and better things to come. Sort of.