Will Disney and 'Star Wars' Save Electronic Arts?

has become one of the most troubled companies within the game industry.

From the

that followed

to the

and hundreds of layoffs, EA is slowly losing its position as a game publishing stalwart. In fact, EA won The Consumerist's

award two years in a row. Despite these and other issues, investors have given EA their full support, raising the company's value by more than 25 percent this year alone. Over the last six months, EA's stock has increased by roughly 36 percent. Why are investors so impressed while consumers and bloggers are typically disappointed? Consumers care about their own individual experiences with a company, but investors look at the bottom line. For all its flaws, SimCity still managed to sell

during its first two weeks of availability. It is not yet known how the game performed

the relentless complaints hit the Web, but even a sales decline may not be able to

. After receiving an endless stream of bad press,

has announced that it has

with EA to produce a series of new

games. This announcement comes roughly one month after Disney

on LucasArts, the game development studio that George Lucas founded. Disney closed LucasArts and terminated all unannounced game projects, leaving many to wonder what would become of

future. At the time, Disney indicated that it wanted to find a development partner to produce new Star Wars games. EA is a logical choice for a Jedi Knights and evil Sith Lords. As the owner of BioWare (which is famous for producing the

franchise, among other popular role-playing games), EA will bring a new level of prestige to Star Wars game development. By enlisting in EA's help, Disney could avoid producing

that are destined for the

bargain bin. That's not to say that EA's games are flawless.

, for example, has taken a backseat (a very crowded, painful and almost invisible backseat) to

franchise. If it weren't for the

franchise, EA would not even be able to compete in the action/war genre anymore. Even so, EA is still a very strong company. The firm owns a number of key franchises, including

,

and

, which will receive a

in 2014. With

at its side (and likely a new

game every year once the movies begin to arrive in theaters), EA might finally be able to turn things around -- in the eyes of consumers, at least.