New DICE studio opened in L.A., focusing on Star Wars

Electronic Arts has opened a new DICE studio in Los Angeles, with a key focus around bolstering the creation of new video games in the Star Wars franchise. Although the DICE headquarters will continue to be situated in Stockholm, Sweden, the company's general manager Karl-Magnus Troedsson told the Wall Street Journal [subscription required] that this new U.S. studio will have around 60 staffers by the end of 2013. The move comes just a week after EA managed to secure an exclusive multi-year agreement with Disney to develop and publish games based on the Star Wars universe. DICE's Star Wars games will be powered by its high-powered Frostbite 3 engine, the same engine that powers Battlefield 3. Troedsson noted that this new studio opening will see the company going head-to-head in the same Southern California area as its rivals, Activision's Infinity Ward and Treyarch Call of Duty operations. "There is an extreme talent pool over [there] that we want a part of," he said. "It's no secret that our main competitor is there." The new studio has begun hiring, with a number of EA employees who worked on the Medal of Honor series already on board. It is not yet completely clear to what extent this studio will be working on the Star Wars franchise alongside the main DICE studio in Sweden. The opening of this new studio comes as EA recently laid off approximately 10 percent of its overall workforce -- around 900 workers in total.