Disney has another Star Wars game up its sleeve. The media conglomerate’s Disney Interactive branch launched the Star Wars: Commander mobile app game on Thursday.
The game is currently only available at the Apple App Store and is free to play. Like many other popular games though, the revenue will be generated by fans buying in-game items to help them. However, in an interview with Gamespot, Disney Interactive executive producer Nathan Etter stressed that you don’t have to pay for items in order to win in this strategy game.
“You can install the game, you can play through all of the content that we produce for free,” Etter explained. “You get access to all the story content, you can play the PvP [Player versus Player] campaigns, you can play the time-limited campaigns and unlock the special rewards...all of that's free for our user.”
The game is set within the Galactic Civil War (the events that play out in Episodes IV, V and VI) and players pick either the Galactic Empire or the Rebel Alliance. They can decide to command an army of Stormtroopers and AT-ATs or enlist help from Han Solo and Princess Leia.
While at its very basic level, Commander appears to resemble other mobile strategy games, Etter told Gamespot that story is much more important here.
“Often, in some of these games, I can't say in all of them, but in some of these games, story isn't really a prevalent piece of the game,” Etter said. “But we know we're making a game for a broad audience of Star Wars fans, and story is absolutely essential to them.”
Of course, Commander is just another part of Disney’s overall Star Wars strategy. The new series Rebels will launch on the Disney Channel on Oct. 3. JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII opens on Dec. 18, 2015.
image of JJ Abrams courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com