What Happened To Star Wars: Attack Squadrons?
A little over a year after Disney’s shocking purchase of Lucasfilm, and with it the Star Wars franchise, we were starting to see more specifics about the studio’s big plans for George Lucas’ fictional universe.
We’ve knew from the beginning that we’d be getting a new trilogy of movies, as well as standalone spinoff films, but in there were also glimpse at other projects across various media, including the new animated series Star Wars: Rebels. Plus we added another project to the slate: a planned, free-to-play PC space shooter called Star Wars: Attack Squadrons. Oh what could have been.
Disney announced the game with a teaser, although they were quick to point out that the video was “not representative of gameplay.” In other words, the video was made specifically for this announcement, and isn’t made up of footage from the game itself.
That could have beed good news or bad news depending on how enthused you are by the teaser, but either way it was a relatively exciting time. Developed by Area 52 Games, working with Disney Interactive and LucasArts, Star Wars: Attack Squadron would be launching a closed beta event early in 2014.
There were a few more concrete details. As suggested by the teaser, the game would give you a variety of iconic Star Wars ships to pilot, including X-wings and TIE fighters.
It would support dogfights between as many as 16 players at a time, so the action could get appropriately frenetic. More info was to come in future weeks, revealing other ships that will be available, as well as settings for the space battles.
But as with many projects, Star Wars: Attack Squadron never got all the way to the finish line. A closed beta period for the game began in North America on January 14, 2014.
And then, not too far after on May 23, 2014, following the completion of the closed beta, Disney officially announced the cancellation of Star Wars: Attack Squadrons.
The exact reasons for the Star Wars: Attack Squadrons cancellation were not explicitly stated, but it seemed the game may not have met user expectations during the beta testing phase.
It doesn’t help that another game at the time, Star Wars Battlefront, never got all the way there either. It was an inauspicious time for franchise games.
