EA has revealed that they have cancelled a Star Wars FPS game from Respawn Entertainment.
EA President of Entertainment and Technology Laura Miele has shared this statement:
“As we’ve looked at Respawn’s portfolio over the last few months, what’s clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn’s rich library of owned brands. Knowing this, we have decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars FPS Action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games.”
As we had reported before, this cancelled Star Wars FPS game was rumored to be based on TV show The Mandalorian. We had also reported on a Star Wars: The Mandalorian game, but this time licensed to Bethesda’s id Software.
Now, some gamers may put two and two together and hypothesize that The Mandalorian license must have been taken from Respawn and given to id Software. We can’t confirm that this is the case, and we will also point out that it may have been possible for both studios to get the license from Disney. The only potential issue would have been that they don’t release next to each other.
Miele’s statement makes it clear that this cancellation has nothing to do with the Star Wars Jedi video game franchise, also by Respawn Entertainment. The two titles in the series so far have been both critical and commercial hits.
However, there has been some uncertainty surrounding Star Wars Jedi as well. Stig Asmussen, who was game director for these games, left Respawn last September. It does not sound like he wanted to really leave the company, as he had spoken fondly about his plans for the third Star Wars Jedi video game. In Stig’s mind, Star Wars Jedi was supposed to be a trilogy.
It is possible Stig received early word that EA would be making these layoffs and project cancellations and left early for that reason, but for now, we have no confirmation from Stig on that, or even any rumors to that effect.
We knew that the third Star Wars Jedi video game would be different without Stig at the helm anymore, but of course, after EA decided to shrink themselves by 5 %, circumstances are considerably different now. The pressure will be on for Respawn to recreate their success in Star Wars Jedi without Stig at the helm, but of course, Respawn and Star Wars Jedi was more than Stig himself. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that long for this next game either.
