This week as part of a round of layoffs, closures and cancellations, EA has decided to no longer move forward with Respawn's Star Wars shooter. While not officially announced, recent leaks suggested that the game would focus on a Mandalorian bounty hunter, potentially bringing the Star Wars 1313 dream back to life.
Recent leaks claimed that Respawn's first-person shooter, set in the Star Wars universe, would star a Mandalorian bounty hunter, giving players access to all the gadgets you would expect, including a grapple hook, jet pack for dodging, a wrist rocket and more. The game was said to be very fast-paced, but it would also have been a linear game, structured with a set of levels, rather than attempting an open world.
Now, Respawn's Mandalorian game won't see the light of day, although as with many other cancelled projects, new details and test footage may well leak out now that the game is no longer going ahead.
The cancellation is part of EA's effort to drop ‘licensed' games entirely from its portfolio, something EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, has expressed interest in before, in large part due to the costs and revenue shares associated with licensed games. This new shift comes at a pretty bad time, as Respawn had multiple Star Wars projects in the works, and other studios were beginning work on new Marvel games, including a Black Panther game, and an Iron Man game. The future of these projects is uncertain at this time.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: This cancellation is probably the one that disappoints me the most. Single-player first-person shooter games are still popular. Yes, DOOM might not sell as many copies as Call of Duty, but there is still plenty of room for a solid FPS campaign in today's industry. Better yet, Respawn's new shooter would have had the weight of the Star Wars license behind it and likely would have benefitted from a solid round of hype ahead of release, as Respawn is basically the only studio that has proven itself capable of making good Star Wars games in the modern era.