EA’s Untitled Star Wars Project in Flux

Posted by Bret on 10/17/17 at 05:34 PM Category: Video Games

Electronic Arts announced today via their blog, that their Visceral studio, which was developing the as yet untitled Star Wars game, will be closing down.

Our Visceral studio will be ramping down and closing, and we’re in the midst of shifting as many of the team as possible to other projects and teams at EA.

EA gave a general overview of the changes that the game is expected to go through:

In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design. We will maintain the stunning visuals, authenticity in the Star Wars universe, and focus on bringing a Star Wars story to life. Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.

The game was originally slated for a release in 2019, but the timetable has changed. EA says they will announce a new release date in the future.

This game was supposedly the latest incarnation of the "legendary" Star Wars 1313, which was in development hell for years, before finally being killed off by Disney in 2013 when they shut down LucasArts. It is believed that some of the essence of 1313 is in the DNA of this new game. It doesn't seem that the project is dead (yet), but at a minimum, it will be a while longer before it ever sees the light of day.