Today, Wired has reported that Lucasfilm Games (formerly LucasArts) is working with Ubisoft to create a new open world Star Wars game. This would be the first title which is neither a mobile title or a LEGO Star Wars game not produced by Electronic Arts since 2012.
At the present time, there’s not much in the way of information about plot, characters, or gameplay. The Wired story indicated that Massive Entertainment (The Division series) will be taking the lead on the development process and the game will be using Massive’s Snowdrop engine. Julian Gerighty, who served as director on The Division 2 and The Crew, will be taking on the creative director role.
In a statement provided to Wired, Sean Shoptaw, SVP of Global Games and Interactive Experiences at Disney, had this to say about the news. “EA has been and will continue to be a very strategic and important partner for us now and going forward. But we did feel like there’s room for others.” EA had signed an exclusivity agreement with Disney shortly after Lucasfilm’s purchase by the media empire. Over the last nine years, EA has released four titles for PC and consoles and one mobile title. Meanwhile, in an interview on StarWars.com, Lucasfilms Games VP Douglas Reilly indicated that EA would still be making Star Wars games going forward. “We’re really proud of the games we have created with EA,” said Reilly. “We will continue working with them and our relationship has never been stronger. While we may not have a lot of details to share at the moment, we’ve got a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA.”
Food For Thought
It’s been about three years and some change since the grand debacle that was Star Wars Battlefront II. The EA exclusivity deal is set to run out late next year, though there may be clauses which give Disney the right to terminate the agreement early. Assuming Disney declines to renew the deal, which they likely will not given this announcement, we’ll probably see Ubisoft’s release sometime around holiday 2022 at the very earliest. Whether it will be a good game, regardless of the Star Wars license, remains to be seen.
