With the reveal of Lucasfilm Games and the exclusivity with EA no more, which classic Star Wars titles most deserve to be remastered and re-released?
The Star Wars fandom is buzzing after news hit just over a week ago when Star Wars revealed that Lucasfilm Games is back. After Disney acquired Lucasfilm back in 2012, it took less than a year for Lucasfilm Games (then LucasArts) to be shut down entirely.
Lucasfilm decided to shutter their in-house video game development and essentially pass the job off to a separate company. In May of 2013, that company became clear as Electronic Arts announced an exclusive, multi-year deal to develop games for the franchise.
Since taking over, EA has managed to deliver some quality products such as Star Wars Battlefront (and its sequel) and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as well as continuing to release expansions for the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Unfortunately, the deal hasn’t been as good as many had hoped, and clearly, Lucasfilm has now decided it’s not worthwhile to continue their video game development with EA in control.
While EA has insisted their partnership and development with Lucasfilm Games “will continue for years to come,” the end of exclusivity opens the proverbial floodgates for Lucasfilm Games to really see what Star Wars gaming can be once again. Looking back, there are many games from the LucasArts and previous Lucasfilm Games periods that feel worth revisiting.
We’ve seen previous Star Wars games be ported to new platforms and re-released in the past, such as Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast coming to Nintendo Switch. In these cases, the game was essentially brought forward as the exact same product with a new way to play.
However, there are several classic Star Wars titles that deserve a fully remastered re-release. In these cases, we would hope to see Lucasfilm Games go back and update graphics, fix and improve original game mechanics, and perhaps even expand on pre-existing stories in the games with new chapters.
Honorable mention: Star Wars 1313 (Announced in 2012, but later canceled)
Before getting to several options that deserve a full remaster and re-release, there’s one product that never quite saw completion which feels all too perfect for Lucasfilm Games to go back to. Originally announced at E3 2012, Star Wars 1313 was intended to be a more adult Star Wars game looking at the gritty story of Boba Fett’s career as a young bounty hunter between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
With the success of The Mandalorian and the announcement of The Book of Boba Fett, this legendary character is hotter than ever. Star Wars 1313 eventually went by the wayside after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and now is the perfect time for Lucasfilm Games to revive the project and deliver the bounty hunter video game adventure we’d all hoped for.