Although EA now has its hands firmly grasped around the Star Wars franchise, publishers and developers had been dreaming of what type of galactic, Jedi-themed game they would make for years. Sure, the idea of crafting a true lightsaber game on the PlayStation Move or other motion-based peripheral, or even the bringing the tragically canceled Star Wars: Battlefront 3 to life have been high up on the list, but what about a massive, open-world game set in this storied universe? According to a former developer at Avalanche Studios, this concept almost came to fruition before the closure of LucasArts.
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Avalanche, then you probably don’t like fun. Both the Just Cause franchise and Renegade Ops came from this Swedish studio, and it’s likely that we’ll be seeing a Just Cause 3 as we make the transition to a new generation. However, Oskar Burman, the current general manager of Rovio Stockholm, was almost involved in creating one of the biggest Star Wars games of all time when he was still at Avalanche.
Actually, wanting to work with SW goes deep in Swe. Long time ago,in a galaxy far, far away, we almost got that deal when I was at Avalanche
— Oskar Burman (@OskarBurman) May 7, 2013
It was Christofer Sundberg, founder and chief creative officer at Avalanche Studios, who brought further credence to the concept. Supposedly, this was to be a single-player, open-world game where players would travel through the galaxy and complete various missions. Essentially, Mass Effect with an already established world.
The fact that this will never happen is disappointing just to think about, but there still may be a game of this ilk with EA now behind the wheel. However, we’ll just have to wait and see what the mega-publisher has up its sleeve in the coming years.
