Electronic Arts executive vice president Patrick Söderlund announced a new Star Wars game by EA and Respawn, the creators of Titanfall, is in development.
Söderlund made the announcement on the official EA website earlier today, that the parent company behind Star Wars: Battlefront is working on a new video game with Respawn Entertainment, the creators of Titanfall.
"Today, I’m thrilled to be able to announce that EA and the talented team at Respawn Entertainment have expanded our relationship to include the development of an all-new 3rd person action adventure game set in the Star Wars universe."
Söderlund also hinted more Star Wars games may be in development from the other studios under the EA umbrella.
"They join our other great studios – Visceral Games, DICE, Capital Games, BioWare, Motive and more – who are currently working on Star Wars projects."
Fans have been clamoring for more Star Wars games which are on the level of quality of gameplay and storyline as Knights of the Old Republic, the first two Battlefront games, and The Force Unleashed. The latest Battlefront incarnation from EA and DICE Studios, while much-anticipated, left players feeling limited by the lack of an overarching story and a copious amount of locations. What EA needs to create now is a game that will work much like The Force Awakens did in getting fans of the older content back on board. There are a couple obvious ways they could do that, including reviving some dead projects.
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Before Disney purchased Star Wars, Lucasarts, the original company behind Star Wars video games, was developing a Coruscant underworld story called 1313, which would place players in the world of bounty hunters like Jango Fett. After Disney purchased the franchise, production on the game stopped and the rights to produce Star Wars games when to EA. Perhaps this new 3rd person game will re-blaze that original path, as many fans were disappointed when 1313 was cancelled.
There’s also the possibility of a Darth Maul video game, which a company called Red Fly wanted to pitch to EA and was actually working on before it was trashed along with 1313. Alternatively, EA could retool both 1313 and the Darth Maul game to feature characters from the sequel trilogy (imagine a Kylo Ren origins game, featuring playable Knights of Ren). I’m betting that whatever game EA and Respawn are working on, it’s going to be related to the sequel trilogy. They’ll want to appeal to the new generation of gamers first and foremost, as the latter are the demographic who are more likely buy more games in the future.
Titanfall, a first person shooter game, won over 60 awards at E3 in 2013 and generally received positive reviews. One of its influences was Star Wars, so that’s a point in the Respawn team’s favor. They’re already used to using Star Wars as a reference. I’m curious to see how they translate their experiences from the development of Titanfall – a game in which human pilots control Pacific Rim-style robots – into the Star Wars universe.
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Keep checking Dork Side as we follow the career of this new Star Wars game with great interest.