Electronic Arts recently announced that it will be laying off around 5 percent of its global workforce earlier today, as part of a restructuring plan that will see roughly 670 people lose their jobs. At the same time, EA CEO Andrew Wilson explained in a letter to employees that the publisher will be sunsetting some games and “moving away” from the development of future games based on licensed IP to focus on and strengthen the publisher’s own brands.
One such game that has been axed as a result of this change is an unannouncedStar Warsfirst-person shooter that was in early development atApex LegendsandStar Wars Jedideveloper Respawn Entertainment. This was recently confirmed by EA Entertainment president Laura Miele ina statement provided to VGC, who explains that Respawn’s fans are most excited by the Jedi series and the developer’s “rich library of owned brands”.
“As we’ve looked at Respawn’s portfolio over the last few months, what’s clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn’s rich library of owned brands,” says Miele. “Knowing this, we have decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars FPS Action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games.”
Miele has also claimed that Electronic Arts now plans to give fans of Respawn and other studios “the next installments of the iconic franchises they want”, implying a heavy pivot away from new licensed IP.
While not outright confirmed, it seems extremely likely that Miele is referring to theMandalorianfirst-person shooter title that wasrumored to be in development earlier this month. According to Insider Gaming, Respawn had plans for an FPS based on the series which would focus on “style” and “mobility” more than anything else. It was also claimed the game was a couple of years away from release, but could now have been scrapped entirely if it is the game Miele is referring to in her statement.
As for EA’s other licensed titles, they all appear to be on track and doing fine right now. EA Motive’s Iron Man game and Cliffhanger Games' Black Panther title are both unaffected by this change, as reported bygamesindustry.biz, as is probably any future plans for the Star Wars Jedi series. We have no idea how many other unannounced titles at EA’s many studios have been affected, but what we do know is that we can probably expect a lot fewer Star Wars from EA in the future.
