We’re not exactly short of Star Wars video games to play at the moment. Whether you prefer to play your games on your PC, console, or mobile phone, you have at least two options. There are Star Wars MMO games that are getting a little long in the tooth now but still attract thousands of players every day, and games that came out to bad reviews in the past five years that still shift copies. We’re a hard to please fanbase when it comes to games, but we’re happy to spend money. That’s why so many games are made, and it’s also why they continue to be made at such a rate.
The Star Wars games of the future are likely to take on different forms. We’ve seen Netflix experimenting with “choose your own adventure” games on its streaming platform. It’s not difficult to imagine Disney doing the same thing with a product for Disney Plus. There are even a couple of Star Wars online slots games, although these appear to be unofficial. The most popular of them is called Star Games, and although the famous Star Wars logo doesn’t appear anywhere in it, there’s no mistaking Darth Vader as one of the slot’s characters. Disney isn’t a huge fan of online slots, which is why it withdrew all of the Marvel ones when it bought the company. With Disney being a money-making enterprise and online slots making ever-increasing amounts of cash each year, though, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them reverse that decision.
While it’s fun to speculate about the Star Wars games of the future, we imagine that you clicked on this article to hear about a Star Wars game that’s likely to turn up a little closer to the present. We’d hate to disappoint you, so here’s the news. According to multiple sources that ought to have first-hand knowledge of such things, a brand new Star Wars game is likely to be announced in December. It’s likely to be a collaborative project between Disney and Lucasfilm Games, and its announcement will come as part of the “Bring Home the Bounty” campaign. New Star Wars products – some big, some small – will be announced every Tuesday from this week until the end of 2021, and the purported new Star Wars game is set to be one of them. The official Star Wars website has a “teaser list,” and the entry for December 14th has a game controller next to it. That’s an unambiguous sign that there’s something in the pipeline for gamers.
It’s possible that this could be an update on an existing game rather than the announcement of a new one, which would be disappointing. It’s no secret that there are several new Star Wars games in development at the moment. Star Wars: Hunters for the Nintendo Switch is edging closer to completion, so it’s not out of the question that December 14th could be its launch date. There’s also the long-awaited remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, but that’s probably several months away from release. Some gaming industry insiders claim to have heard that there’s a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the offing, but that’s a remote possibility for now. EA was specifically asked whether it was working on a sequel to that game as recently as August this year and didn’t have anything to say on the matter. However, that doesn’t mean that EA doesn’t have a different Star Wars game up its sleeve. The company has never been shy about making as much use of the license as possible, and it still has all of the necessary rights.
Quantic Dreams, the company best known for Detriot: Become Human, has been working on a Star Wars game for at least the past eighteen months. The company has never confirmed the rumours, but the game’s existence is one of the worst kept secrets in the entire gaming industry. Eighteen months is enough time to have a trailer made, so the December date could be when we get our first glimpse of it. We’ve been told it will be action-orientated with some multiplayer elements, although it probably won’t be another MMO.
The game that most fans are hoping to hear more about is the Ubisoft Star Wars game that was announced in January this year. Almost nothing is known about it other than the fact that it will be an open-world game and is being treated as a triple-A title. Unfortunately, this is the least likely of the possible options. Three months after the game was announced, EA and Lucasfilm Games clarified that no other publisher will release a Star Wars game until the EA exclusivity deal runs out at the end of 2023. EA will continue to publish Star Wars games after that date, but they won’t be the only publisher doing so. That doesn’t stop Ubisoft from working on the new game between now and then, but it means they won’t be able to release anything until either late 2023 or early 2024 unless something changes. That gives Ubisoft plenty of time to work on the game and get it right, but nobody should be holding their breath about seeing a trailer or even any gameplay footage any time soon.
While new Star Wars games are generally to be welcomed, there’s always a danger of reaching saturation point and losing the interest of all but the most dedicated fans. It already feels a little like we’re getting to that point with films and television shows. After getting no new Star Wars content for years, we’re now rapidly approaching the point where there’s too much to keep up with. Fans only have so much time and so much money, and they can’t continually invest in an ever-increasing amount of media and content. If the December announcement genuinely does concern a new game, it’s going to have to be a very good one if it’s going to garner enough attention to become a success.
When further information about the announcement is available – which probably won’t be until that date in December – you can rest assured that you’ll hear about it right here.