Get ready, everyone. "Star Wars: Episode 7" is still more than a year from its projected release date, but merchandise has no such limits.
Disney released its latest money-maker Thursday, mobile video game "Star Wars: Commander."
"Commander" is a strategy base-building game along the lines of what "Command & Conquer" made popular in the '90s and "Clash of Clans" has now brought back to the mainstream.
AMY ROBACH, ABC ANCHOR: "It's all free and available in the Apple App Store starting now. So parents, get ready. I'm going to have to pull those devices away from my kid even more."
Although some headlines label it a free-to-play game for download, keep in mind Disney's going to make its money — probably a load of it — off in-app purchases.
And this based off old Star Wars storylines. The movie's still shooting with very little tangible info coming out on new characters or new plot lines we know Disney will eventually market the hell out of.
C3PO: "This is madness!"
R2D2: << beeping >> (Video via 20th Century Fox Film Corporation / "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope")
It probably will be. Remember, George Lucas isn't in charge anymore after selling Disney the rights to Star Wars.
And though Lucas transformed himself from young-genius-who-hates-production-companies to the owner of a production company, Lucasfilm just isn't on the same level as Disney.
Star Wars is just one of eight brands that bring in more than $1 billion a year in merchandise for Disney, a company unapologetically brilliant at getting its products into almost every phase of our lives — not to mention our kids'.
Think Star Wars fatigue can't happen? Think 1999, think "Phantom Menace," think Jar Jar.
Lucas himself admitted when that first episode in the newer wave of Star Wars movies came out, marketers overdid it.
"The associated toys for the film were 'over-licensed,' 'over-shipped' and 'over-saturated,'" leading to a lot of unsold merchandise.
In 2012 when Disney bought Star Wars' rights, Forbes wrote oversaturating the market with merchandise was one of the five ways to hurt the franchise.
But Disney has a whole new generation to market to, and it didn't spend $4 billion to sit tight and wait for next year's movie to come out.
Proving some fans will never get enough of the movies or the merchandise, one longtime fan told The New York Times: “The natives are getting very restless. What’s taking so long?”
The Disney Channel also has a new animated series set for debut in October, and construction plans have already progressed on multiple Star Wars-themed "lands" at Disney Parks along the lines of Cars Land.
This video includes images from Getty Images.
