Former Disney CEO Says Buying Star Wars “Worked,” and Gaming Proves the Point

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner has summed up the Lucasfilm deal in the most executive way possible: Disney bought Star Wars, and it worked.

Speaking in a new Fortune piece about Hollywood, video games, and the entertainment industry’s obsession with IP, Eisner pointed to Disney’s Lucasfilm acquisition as one of the company’s smartest moves. His line was blunt: Disney had “nothing” in the last 20 years, so it bought Star Wars from George Lucas, “and that worked.”

That is a little dramatic.

Disney also bought Pixar and Marvel in the same broader era, so “nothing” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. But the larger point is hard to argue with: buying Lucasfilm gave Disney one of the most powerful entertainment engines on the planet.

And gaming proves exactly why.

Star Wars Was Never Just a Movie Brand

The mistake is treating Star Wars like it only lives or dies at the box office.

It does not.

It lives in animation. Comics. Books. Toys. Theme parks. Collectibles. MMOs. Mobile games. Strategy games. Lego sets. Streaming shows. Tabletop games. Mods. Weird rabbit smugglers. Everything.

That is why the Lucasfilm deal was so valuable. Disney did not just buy a film library. It bought a galaxy that can keep expanding across formats.

Fortune’s piece frames Eisner’s comments around Hollywood’s long-running struggle to turn big entertainment brands into successful games and interactive experiences. That is where Star Wars becomes the obvious example. It has been crossing that line for decades, sometimes brilliantly, sometimes with the grace of a stormtrooper in a stairwell.

Still, the body count of memorable Star Wars games is ridiculous.

Gaming Has Carried Star Wars Through Every Era

Before Disney owned Lucasfilm, games had already helped define what Star Wars could be outside the films.

X-Wing and TIE Fighter turned space combat into cockpit anxiety. Dark Forces and Jedi Knight gave the franchise a first-person edge. Knights of the Old Republic built one of the most beloved Star Wars stories ever told. Battlefront made the fantasy playable at scale. The Old Republic turned the galaxy into a long-running MMO.

That is not side content.

That is franchise infrastructure.

Our complete list of every Star Wars game ever made shows just how much of the brand’s identity has been built through games. For a lot of people, their strongest Star Wars memory is not a cinema seat. It is a PC, a console, a loading screen, and one very bad tactical decision.

Disney’s Star Wars Still Needs Games

This is also why Eisner’s point matters now.

Disney’s Star Wars has had huge wins, rough patches, loud fan arguments, and long stretches where the movie side has felt strangely cautious. But the gaming side keeps giving the franchise new lanes.

Star Wars: Zero Company is turning the Clone Wars into a squad-based tactics game. Our complete Star Wars: Zero Company guide tracks how Bit Reactor, Respawn, and Lucasfilm Games are building around squad bonds, permadeath, base operations, and tactical choices.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is reviving the racing fantasy that made Episode I Racer such a cult favorite. The upcoming game has its own Galactic Racer hub, because apparently Star Wars vehicles still have plenty of fuel left.

Then there is Galaxy of Heroes, which has reached the point where Darth Jar Jar is becoming a real SWGOH unit. That may be madness, but it is also proof that Star Wars can still generate attention from the strangest corners of its own mythology.

The Old Republic Is the Best Counterargument

If anyone wants proof that Star Wars gaming can create lasting value, look at The Old Republic era.

Revan. Malak. Bastila. Darth Malgus. SWTOR. KOTOR. Ancient Sith politics. Jedi collapse. A whole era of Star Wars that many fans still care about deeply, despite it rarely being the center of Disney’s film and TV machine.

The recent Hot Toys Darth Malgus figure is a perfect example. Malgus is not a movie character. He is a game-born Sith icon from Star Wars: The Old Republic, and he still has enough pull to headline a premium collectible reveal.

That is what Eisner’s quote gets at, whether intentionally or not.

Good IP does not just sit there.

It mutates.

It survives through formats.

It becomes playable.

Buying Star Wars Worked Because Star Wars Keeps Moving

Disney buying Lucasfilm “worked” because Star Wars is not one thing.

It is a setting. A toy box. A mythology. A business machine. A nostalgia engine. A gaming universe. A merchandising monster with a lightsaber attached.

That does not mean every Disney-era Star Wars decision has worked. Obviously not. The franchise has stumbled plenty, and pretending otherwise would be silly.

But the acquisition itself?

Yes, it worked.

And gaming is one of the clearest reasons why.

Because even when the films pause, the galaxy does not. Players are still racing, fighting, collecting, modding, raiding, building squads, losing GAC rounds, arguing about KOTOR, and somehow preparing for Darth Jar Jar.

That is not a dead franchise.

That is a franchise doing exactly what valuable IP does.

Refusing to stay in one lane.