After The Walt Disney Company's purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012 and the closure of LucasArts the following year, the games developed during the first two eras were discarded from the canon in 2014 and reassigned to the non-canonical Star Wars Legends label.

[3][4] The first video game cartridge bearing the name Star Wars appeared that year on the RCA Studio II clones Sheen M1200 and Mustang Telespiel Computer.

[7] Licensed releases for the Atari 2600 began with The Empire Strikes Back (1982) in which the player piloted a snowspeeder during the Battle of Hoth, destroying AT-AT walkers.

The sequel for the game, The Empire Strikes Back, used the same technology to re-create scenes from the second film, including battles with AT-AT walkers and an asteroid field.

In 1987, UK software publisher Domark released several 8-bit versions of the Star Wars vector arcade game, followed by similar conversions in 1988 of The Empire Strikes Back machine.

In 1987, Namco developed a Star Wars game for the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom) for the Japanese market exclusively, based on the 1977 film, but with several liberties taken with its storyline.

The second strategic title, Star Wars: Force Commander was also released, but failed to keep up with other RTS games, since it was more focused on battling (with no resource gathering) and used a primitive 3D engine.

Formerly known as Star Wars Expanded Universe, this continuity was renamed into Legends in 2014 and all media based on them, including video games, ceased to be canon.

The X-Wing series marked the start of the Star Wars games moving away from remaking the official films and began to focus more on the Expanded Universe.

Other titles were published or licensed by LucasArts, such as The Software Toolworks's Star Wars Chess who also used the first multimedia explosion to release Rebel Assault (1993), which used FMV and photos extensively.

Shadows of the Empire featured fan-favorite parts from the Super Star Wars line, such as another reenactment of the Battle of Hoth, piloting a snowspeeder and tying a cable around AT-ATs legs.

In 2002, its sequel Jedi Outcast was released and gave players the first chance to experience advanced lightsaber duels, and it also detached itself from the usual idea of movie tie-ins.

The Sith Lords was praised for its cerebral writing and moral ambiguity, similar to The Empire Strikes Back, but criticized for being derivative of the first game and being released in an incomplete state.

The following games are more of Star Wars themed, rather than actually influencing the franchise's fictional plot, they are classified together because of sharing the same genre, rather than officially being part of the same series.

[44] At E3 2012, EA with LucasArts announced Star Wars 1313, which focuses more on the life of a bounty hunter as he descends to the level 1313 on Coruscant to unravel a criminal plot.

With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, it was announced that LucasArts' development arm would stop making video games indefinitely.

The lower-than-expected sales and mixed fan reception towards Electronic Arts' handling of the Battlefront sub-franchise had led to rumors of Lucasfilm considering changing the terms of the license, which expired on 14 October 2024, where Disney had confirmed that it would not renew their contract with EA.

[52] Only original trilogy characters (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine) and planets (Tatooine, Hoth and Endor) were playable on launch.

Downloadable content later added the planets Jakku (from The Force Awakens), Bespin (from The Empire Strikes Back), Scarif (from Rogue One), in addition to the Death Star battle station (from A New Hope), and heroes Nien Numb, Greedo (Outer Rim), Lando Calrissian, Dengar (Bespin), Chewbacca, Bossk (Death Star), and Jyn Erso and Director Krennic (Rogue One: Scarif).

It addresses a major criticism of the previous game by including a singleplayer campaign with a story mode set between the ending of Return of the Jedi and the beginning of The Force Awakens, in which the player controls an Imperial special forces commander named Iden Versio; additionally, characters from the films, including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Kylo Ren are playable.

[56] The story picks up 5 years after Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as Cal Kestis and his Mantis crew continue to fight against the growing darkness in the galaxy.

It was revealed on 15 June 2020,[58][59][60] and was released on 2 October 2020, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a singleplayer campaign and multiplayer modes,[61] alongside cross-platform play between all three platforms and virtual reality support for the PS4 and PC versions.

Amy Hennig, former Naughty Dog writer and director who oversaw the Uncharted series, joined Visceral as creative lead on the project codenamed Ragtag.

[65] On 15 January 2019, Kotaku's Jason Schreier reported that the game codenamed "Project Ragtag" had been canceled according to three people familiar with goings-on at EA.

[66] Rogue One writer Gary Whitta openly criticized Electronic Arts for the cancelation, adding that he hoped Disney would hand the Star Wars licence to other companies.

The fan made game was in production using Unreal Engine 4 and was based on the cancelled Star Wars: Battlefront III by Free Radical Design.

On 4 June 2016, Galaxy in Turmoil gained a distribution deal through Valve and was planned to be released for free on Steam which generated a fair amount of attention.

[102] On 31 July 2016, Frontwire Studios announced the cancellation of the game was due to the possibility of Galaxy in Turmoil taking away attention from Electronic Arts' Battlefront franchise.

[102] Although Frontwire Studios may have fallen within Fair Use laws, legal conflict was avoided and the fan made Star Wars inspired project was canceled.

Galaxy in Turmoil is now planned to be released as a brand new "cyber-punk" themed[103] IP without any Star Wars references, but still with Battlefront III-inspired mechanics including space-to-ground battles.