EA has revealed that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is being ported to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, EA CEO Andrew Wilson shared this statement in a recent financial earnings call:
“Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is pure blockbuster entertainment, rooted in a timeless, culture-defining IP.
Our team at Respawn proudly launched this title to critical acclaim and commercial success. Millions of players have already engaged with the game, making this one of the biggest events in the Star Wars galaxy this year.
Thanks to the strength of this legendary franchise and community demand, our development team has committed to bringing this Jedi experience to PS4 and Xbox One.”
Wilson also hinted at other plans to leverage Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and the Star Wars IP in general
“Over the coming year, we will harness the community’s passion and capitalize on key Star Wars franchise moments to drive continued engagement for this incredible game.
Based on the strength of the IP, the engaging gameplay, and new ways to bring the title to players, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will continue to deliver long-term value.”
As Wilson had pointed out, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launched as a critical and commercial success. Notably, the game had performance issues on all platforms, being particularly broken on PC.
Those issues were not enough to take from the game’s success, winning Sony’s Player’s Choice Award for April. EA had touted the game’s success in the last financial quarter as well.
As for Wilson’s hints at more Star Wars, of course, he was alluding to plans for Respawn to make one more Star Wars Jedi game, rounding up Cal Kestis’ story into a full trilogy.
It is interesting that EA opted to backport Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, not something the company is known for in general. It is perhaps an understated acknowledgement that even at this point in the console cycle, a lot of gamers still haven’t updated to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, and are still playing on either a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
It’s also a bit strange to consider when Respawn wasn’t able to really polish Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for a faultless launch. But perhaps Respawn had already pitched their bosses at EA that the game wasn’t really designed to do something that was only possible on the current generation of consoles, meaning that a backport was feasible.
