Disney and Electronic Arts (EA) just announced they entered a multi-year exclusive agreement regarding future Star Wars video games.

Under the new deal, EA will have the exclusive rights to start developing and publishing a series of new Star Wars games for "a core gaming audience." The games will span all interactive platforms and the most popular game genres, tout the two companies.

Disney, meanwhile, will retain certain rights to develop new titles within various categories such as mobile, social, tablet and online games.

"This agreement demonstrates our commitment to creating quality game experiences that drive the popularity of the Star Wars franchise for years to come," Disney Interactive Co-President John Pleasants said in the press release. "Collaborating with one of the world's premier game developers will allow us to bring an amazing portfolio of new Star Wars titles to our fans around the world."

"Every developer dreams of creating games for the Star Wars universe," adds EA Labels President Frank Gibeau. "Three of our top studios will fulfill that dream, crafting epic adventures for Star Wars fans. DICE and Visceral will produce new games, joining the BioWare team which continues to develop for the Star Wars franchise. The new experiences we create may borrow from films, but the games will be entirely original with all new stories and gameplay."

The two companies did not disclose the financial terms of their agreement. Meanwhile, it remains unclear for now just what this new partnership will mean for pre-existing Star Wars titles that were put on hold when LucasArts shut down last month. LucasArts is the video games arm of Lucasfilm, and those pre-existing titles included Star Wars 1313 and Star Wars: First Assault.

Disney and EA made no announcement regarding pre-existing titles for now, but a Disney spokesperson told CNET that such decisions would likely be made jointly by Disney, EA and Lucasfilm.

The exclusive Star Wars agreement is a big hit for EA nonetheless, especially since the company went through some rough patches recently. EA suffered though large layoffs and some studio shutdowns, in addition to being featured on the list of the worst companies to work for. Amid such difficulties, the deal with Disney is a major achievement.