Jedi: Fallen Order Studio Making Three More Star Wars Games
In fact, the gaming publisher has announced the entire new barrage of Star Wars games, some of which are developed by Respawn Entertainment, in charge of Jedi: Fallen Order 2.
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Considering that Electronic Art’s Star Wars exclusivity license is soon to expire, Lucasfilm Games has offered the opportunity to other gaming studios to pick up and have their take on the massive multimedia franchise that is Star Wars. Of course, taking the chance to prove themselves and make money in the process, gaming companies, both large and small, pounced at the opportunity to make Star Wars games in the hope of earning a fraction of Disney’s billions. But that doesn’t mean that EA will stop making Star Wars games. In fact, the gaming publisher has announced the entire new barrage of Star Wars games, some of which are developed by Respawn Entertainment, in charge of Jedi: Fallen Order 2.
According to Kotaku, besides confirming that Respawn Entertainment has a sequel to 2019’s massively popular Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the new games will include titles from the first-person shooter and strategy genres. The former project is led by Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond gaming director Peter Hirschmann, and the latter by the former XCOM art director Greg Foertsch. Besides mentioning Foertsch’s new studio, Bit Reactor, who will be collaborating with Respawn Entertainment on various projects, EA noted that Hirschmann was a producer for the original 2004’s Battlefront series. However, his new project, the aforementioned first-person shooter game, will be an entirely new Star Wars title and not a successor to the latest incarnation of Battlefront (2015), made by DICE.
EA’s announcement of the upcoming titles developed by its subsidiaries also doubles as a hiring pitch and in time of unprecedented competition for the development talent, considering that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the gaming market. That’s about the only positive thing about the ongoing public health situation — people are playing more video games. Regardless, it’s somewhat discernable from EA’s announcement that Respawn is nearing the end of its active development phase on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2, which is rumored to introduce major changes from the original game. Whether or not these rumors turn out the be true remains to be seen, and it’s entirely possible for Jedi: Fallen Order 2 to drop in late 2022 or early 2023. Fingers crossed for the earlier date, of course.
As we’ve stated at the beginning of this report, these new projects are arriving in light of the expiration of EA’s 10-year exclusivity contract with Lucasfilm. While the agreement is set to expire entirely in 2023, competitors like Ubisoft and Quantic Dream are already developing their own Star Wars titles, like Quantic Dream’s Star Wars Eclipse, whose game purportedly ran into development issues early on, despite Quantic’s release of a gameplay video stating otherwise. As far as EA and Star Wars go, the last decade, though exclusive, was a troubled one, considering that almost as many games were canceled as were released, and the titles that got released weren’t without their share of controversies. EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II is often referred to as ground-zero for pay-to-win loot boxes and microtransactions that established a controversial reputation for EA Games as a company that relies on predatory monetization mechanics.
