In brief: Bad news for those looking forward to Electronics Arts’ open-world Star Wars game: according to a new report, it’s been canceled.
Back in October 2017, Visceral Games, the company behind all three Dead Space titles, was shuttered by parent firm EA. In addition to the closure, development of a Star Wars project codenamed Ragtag was taken over by EA Vancouver, which had been assisting with the game.
Work on this Star Wars had been directed by Amy Henning and was described as a linear action-adventure game, much like Uncharted, which Henning also directed, but EA vice president Patrick Soderlund said it would to undergo a “significant change” following the closure of Visceral.
While some of its assets were retained, the Star Wars title was reimagined as an open-world game. Soderlund said this would offer “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."
According to Kotaku, the rebooted Star Wars title, which had been given the new codename of Orca, has now been killed off. It would have seen players take control of a scoundrel or bounty hunter able to explore different planets and work with various factions. A sort of GTA meets Star Wars, perhaps?
Orca was reportedly canceled simply because of its distant release date. EA wanted something available earlier, so it was killed off in favor of a smaller scale Star Wars game that should arrive late next year, which could coincide with the release of the next generation of consoles.
It’s not all bad news, though, as there’s hope that work on Orca might restart once the new Star Wars project is complete. But even if it does, we’ll be waiting a very long time before seeing the finished product.
https://www.techspot.com/news/78295-ea-open-world-star-wars-game-has-reportedly.html
