Last week Star Wars fans received the disappointing news that the untitled Star Wars first-person-shooter being developed by Respawn Entertainment, the studio behind the successful Star Wars Jedi series, had been cancelled by Respawn’s parent company, Electronic Arts.
The untitled FPS single-player game had been in development since 2022 and was still looking to hire staff on the day the cancellation was announced just last week. Job listings from last year revealed that the game was inspired by the Star Wars: Dark Forces series and reports from recent weeks from Insider Gaming revealed that the game would see players take control of a Mandalorian bounty hunter, though it was an original character and not Din Djarin, which I’m sure some fans were hoping for.
Other details on the game revealed that it had an emphasis on style and mobility that would mostly come from the use of the Mandalorian’s jet-pack. Players would be rewarded for their stylish efforts and kills, with the game also reporting featuring a takedown system similar to the iconic DOOM franchise. The game would see players start at “the den,” which would act as the player’s base of operations. The den would’ve contained the bounty hunter’s ship, a map of the galaxy, upgrade station, armoury, and more. It would be here, in the den, where players would select the bounties they wished to pursue. In the den, players could then equip and upgrade weapons and armor before entering their ship and seek out their bounty.
This brings us to now where a French YouTube show and podcast by Origami shared details on the possible reasoning behind the video games cancellation. On the latest episode of their show, L’Hebdo #15, the hosts and journalists discussed an array of topics, one of which was the cancellation of the untitled Star Wars FPS. One of the journalists, Gautoz, shared that from what he has heard, one of the reasons behind EA’s decision to cancel Respawn’s Star Wars game was due to the FPS not featuring Jedi or lightsabers. You can read the quote from Gautoz below, but I must stress, this translation comes from YouTube and was pulled and sent to me by Azzatru. I must also add that Azzatru also informed me that Gautoz had previously released accurate information on the upcoming Star Wars video game from Quantic Dream, Star Wars: Eclipse, with the journalist breaking that Quantic Dream would be partnering with Disney on an upcoming game which turned out to be Eclipse. With all that in mind, take the quote below as you see fit.
“Host: Both the Iron Man game and Black Panther game and are not visibly concerned. They [EA] remain committed partly to Star Wars. You told me this morning at least on games with Lightsabers?
Gautoz: Well that’s basically what it is from what I was able to capture. But no, basically from what I was told, internal communications formulated by Electronic Arts, the goal would be to say to Star Wars ‘yes’ but Star Wars without the Jedi…[Makes fart sound effect]. They’re not sure it pays off sufficiently compared to what was going to be put in.”
The journalist emphasised that he was speaking about the “religion of the Jedi” and not the Star Wars Jedi series when discussing the cancellation of the untitled Respawn Star Wars FPS and EA’s apprehension to commit to Star Wars games that don’t feature Jedi or lightsabers. Guatoz ended the segment that focused on the cancelled game stating that according to his sources at EA, they’re being told, “if there is no Lightsaber, we’re not too sure about that. That’s it.” when discussing the possibility of future Star Wars games being developed at the publisher.
If this reasoning is accurate then I find it quite baffling. I’m sure there’s some data and analytics that show Jedi and lightsabers are desired more by the masses, but having a video game from a studio that saw EA gain great success with their previous Star Wars entires (Fallen Order, Survivor), the studio that developed the critically acclaimed Titanfall 2 and hugely popular Apex Legends, where you play as a Mandalorian, when the hottest Star Wars property since 2019 features a Mandalorian, would surely be very appealing to gamers and Star Wars fans.
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