A new Star Wars game from EA Vancouver is reportedly set to release in 2020, with the developer having been removed from its development on an open-world Star Wars game in order to produce a more small-scale title set in the Star Wars universe. The cancellation of the previous Star Wars game is said to have been related to timing issues, with EA wanting a new release sooner than EA Vancouver could provide. As a result, development has been shifted over onto a less ambitious project, with sights set on a release next year.
The news of EA canceling EA Vancouver’s highly anticipated open-world Star Wars game was widely criticized. With EA having now bungled a number of its Star Wars projects, this seemed like the latest in a line of failed attempts at making the most of the Star Wars license. However, in a follow-up report from Kotaku, it’s claimed that production has instead shifted to a smaller project and development could still continue on the open-world game in the future.
According to Jason Schreier, the decision to cancel the open-world game when EA management decided that it needed a new Star Wars game to launch sooner rather than later. With EA Vancouver’s previous title was very early in development, the decision was made to shift focus on a brand new project with a projected launch year of 2020.
As EA has thus far produced three games using the Star Wars license, it seems that the publisher wanted to do more with a license that should be printing the company a lot of money right now. However, while it’s disappointing to hear that the open-world game has been canned for the time being, Schreier also reports that many in the studio hope the project will be resurrected in the future.
If this new project launches in 2020, that’s the same year in which the next-gen consoles are expected to launch. It could well be that EA wants a Star Wars launch title for the PS5 and next Xbox, though the game could still make its way onto the PS4 and Xbox One.
