Shortly after Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson announced plans to cut 5% of the studio's workforce, Laura Miele, president of entertainment and technology at EA, said the company had also decided to do so Cancel a Star Wars FPS that was in development at Respawn, shutting down the studio that was working on the single-player campaign for the next Battlefield game.
The project was one of three Star Wars games in the works at Respawn and was announced in early 2022, a year after EA pledged to stick with the franchise despite losing its exclusive deal with Disney. But now it has been decided to change direction.
“As we've looked at Respawn's portfolio over the past few months, it's become clear that the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn's rich library of private brands,” Miele said. “Knowing this, we have decided to move away from early development of a Star Wars FPS action game and focus our efforts on new projects based on our own brands while providing support for existing games.”
This is a truly surprising move given the brand's enormous recognition: Apex Legends is big, but Star Wars is, well, war of stars.
But aside from the Star Wars Jedi games that Miele referenced, EA has struggled to bring major Star Wars games to market. A heavily hyped project led by Amy Hennig, codenamed Ragtag, was first retooled in 2019 and eventually canceled after years of stalled development, and that same year EA was also said to be releasing a Star Wars Battlefront spin-off game with the Codename Viking canceled.
While Respawn's Star Wars adventure has come to an untimely end, Miele said the next Battlefield game is “making significant progress.” However, following Marcus Lehto's departure, development of the single-player campaign he led at Ridgeline Games has now moved to Criterion. Ridgeline, which only opened in 2022, is closing.
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