Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order wasn't perfect. Regardless, it did deliver something fans had been clamouring for, for years: a single-player Star Wars adventure with plenty of lightsaber action. Despite its problems (and there were problems) it's a strong foundation for future games, and proof (I hope) that EA needs to give us more from our Star Wars video games than the occasional online shooter.
The good news is that EA already has a studio hard at work on at least one more Star Wars project. The upcoming game is in development at the EA-owned Motive Studios. Founded in 2015 under the leadership of former Ubisoft executive Jade Raymond (who has since departed for Stadia), Motive has mostly assisted other EA studios on projects until now.
Motive's previous work includes support on Anthem, Battlefront II, and the ultimately doomed Star Wars adventure game from Visceral - the same one that Uncharted writer Amy Hennig was working on. EA has now decided to hand the studio the opportunity to lead development on their very own Star Wars title. We have no idea what shape this game will take, or when it'll launch, but the current word is that it'll be a "very unique experience".
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Speaking to Games Industry at the Montreal International Game Summit, Motive VP and General Manager Patrick Klaus confirmed the news. He revealed that Motive has two projects on the go right now - one is a brand new IP, while the other is the aforementioned unique Star Wars experience.
"We're doing a lot of work internally in order to identify our DNA, who we are, and what we do," Klaus explained. "We're in the process of communicating that internally and making sure the teams buy into it, that they're fully committed to where we're going and they understand why. And then I think the identity externally gets proven when we release games, and when we release successful games."
It's not entirely clear what Klaus means when he says the upcoming game will be "unique," but we can probably assume he means it's not like the other Star Wars games EA has put out since 2015. Does this mean we can rule out a single-player action adventure or multiplayer FPS?
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Parts of Visceral's Project Ragtag (the codename for their Star Wars game) were initially supposed to be folded into an open-world Star Wars adventure from EA Vancouver, codenamed Orca. Shockingly, Orca was also cancelled at the start of this year. Given Motive played a role in the development of this mystery project, perhaps the new game will feature some of its predecessor's abandoned open-world elements.
I wouldn't be surprised if Motive attempted to salvage some of the work that had already been done by EA Vancouver - and by Visceral before them. Then again, I also wouldn't be surprised if this latest Star Wars game ultimately gets the chop, too. It sounds like it's early days for the project, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Featured Image Credit: EATopics: Jedi: Fallen Order, EA