Gamescom 2020 was full of exciting announcements – but, unfortunately, there was a little bad news sprinkled in alongside the good. While a new gameplay trailer was revealed for the highly anticipated Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, this reveal came with an announcement that the game’s release had been delayed. Although it was not officially confirmed, the cause of this delay is theorized to be the difficulty of working on the game during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally planned to be a 2020 release, The Skywalker Saga will now be debuting sometime in Spring 2021. It will be available for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. The latter two next generation console versions were officially confirmed during the Gamescom 2020 announcement.
Representing Lego and Star Wars’ most ambitious collaboration to date, the game will retell the stories of all nine films in the Skywalker Saga: the Original, Prequel and New Trilogies. Players will not be required to complete the stories in any particular order, but instead may choose in which order they tackle the nine tales. The game’s “hub world” from which these multiple stories can be accessed will feature several fully explorable moons, ships and planets, including Naboo, Jakku, Endor, Tatooine, and even the Death Star itself.
The Gamescom trailer revealed a number of updates to the combat system which differentiates it from previous Lego Star Wars titles. In particular, lightsaber-wielding characters are now able to unleash powerful combos, while ranged blaster-focused combatants will have access to an over-the-shoulder camera in the style of classic third-person shooter titles. Additionally, Skywalker Saga was confirmed to have several hundred playable characters, with a total of 500 characters from throughout the Star Wars universe appearing in the game in one role or another.
While the delay is disappointing to hear, the additional time may just give the developers exactly what they need to make Skywalker Saga the best Lego AND Star Wars game yet!
