Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Respawn’s Star Wars game will likely arrive in EA’s 2020 fiscal year

By
EA Star Wars: A Look Ahead
It appears that EA’s next Star Wars game might not launch until 2019 or maybe even 2020. During the studio’s most recent earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen claimed that Respawn’s Star Wars game looks to be on track for the studio’s 2020 fiscal year,
Recommended Videos
IGN reports.

Don’t get too alarmed. EA’s 2020 fiscal year begins April 2019 and runs through March 2020. Since EA hasn’t officially announced its plans for the 2020 fiscal year, though, there’s always the chance that this could change.

For now, it would seem that Respawn’s project will arrive before the next Battlefront and EA’s other Star Wars project helmed by EA Vancouver.

This is a shift in EA’s original timeline. The next Star Wars game release was supposed to be a linear, story-focused adventure game from Visceral Games led by Uncharted series writer Amy Hennig. EA shuttered Visceral in October and shifted development to EA Vancouver with help from EA Worldwide Studios. The shakeup applied to the game too, with all signs pointing to an open-world experience. As such, the currently untitled project was pushed back.

In the earnings call, EA noted that Star Wars Battlefront II underperformed. While not explicitly stated, it seems that may have contributed to Respawn’s Star Wars title replacing the next Battlefront game in the 2020 fiscal year. But even if the Battlefront series is on ice, EA appears to be committed to developing a third entry in the series’ reboot, most likely titled “Battlefront III,” somewhere down the line. It’s still possible that the next Battlefront could launch in EA’s 2019 fiscal year, but it doesn’t sound likely.

We know next to nothing about Respawn’s untitled Star Wars game, which has inadvertently found itself in position to be the next AAA Star Wars release. A short teaser from EA Play 2016 showed a motion capture session featuring lightsaber battles. So the game looks to emphasize melee combat and possibly centers on the Jedi. Respawn however did promise “slick, larger-than-life action and fun, groundbreaking mechanics.” While we have yet to see any in-game footage, Respawn has built a reputation for innovative gameplay throughout its exceptional work on the Titanfall series.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Steven Petite
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
The best Star Wars games of all time
Cal fighting the Ninth Sister in Jedi Fallen Order.

Star Wars has been a cultural touchstone since the original film debuted in theaters more than 45 years ago. Today, the Star Wars brand is still led by the ongoing movie series. Each Star Wars movie release stirs frantic buzz across the world, and with Disney+, that even extends to television now with series like The Mandalorian.

It seeps into video games, too, and although there are a lot of bad Star Wars games, recent ones like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor prove they can be good. Let's take a look at the best Star Wars games, ranging from third-person shooters to full-blown role-playing games.

Read more
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the culmination of the series’ rocky gaming history
Jedi Cal Kestis.

I've played Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's Coruscant heist opening multiple times at this point, and every time I play it, I can't help but think about what could've been with Star Wars 1313, the franchise's most infamous canceled game. 
The idea of an Uncharted-like game about Boba Fett fighting throughout the Coruscant underworld is such an excellent pitch that I've grieved the loss of a game I never even had a chance to play for over a decade. Playing through Survivor's opening doesn't elicit feelings of disappointment about 1313, though. Instead, I feel happy that at least some fraction of that idea was able to be realized.

Survivor's Metroidanvia-like level design and Lightsaber-and-Force-based combat are much different than what was promised from 1313. However, the idea of cleverly climbing and fighting across a seedy-looking level of Coruscant during a heist was still realized. Reflecting on the lost project ahead of this year's Star Wars Day, I had a revelation about Respawn Entertainment's latest game. Despite technically being a sequel to just Fallen Order, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor feels like the culmination of over a decade of Star Wars games, both released and canceled, that came before.
A walk through Star Wars gaming history
Growing up, two of my favorite video games were the original Star Wars: Battlefront II and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. To this day, 2005's Battlefront II is my favorite game of all time, not only because of all the great memories that I had with it but also because it feels like an authentic Star Wars simulator where multiple eras, planets, and characters are preserved in incredible detail. Survivor feels like it has the same keen attention to detail.
Players may not visit as many planets as they do in Battlefront II, but each location in Survivor is densely packed with content and immaculately packed with detailed environments and characters that faithfully represent the High Republic, prequel, and Imperial eras. While the aesthetics feel as detailed as Battlefront, the gameplay fantasy pulls more from The Force Unleashed.

Read more
All Stim upgrade locations in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Cal picking up a stim upgrade with BD.

Just like Fallen Order before it, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has many Souls-like elements. Outside of the general flow of combat, and the way Meditation Points work, Stims are essentially analogous to your Estus flas -- a limited healing resource that you can only replenish by resting. You will only start with a meager two Stims, leaving you with very little room for error even on low-difficulty settings. Thankfully, Stim Upgrades allow you to increase that number by one for each you manage to find. Given how powerful these are, you'll want to gather up as many as possible to ensure your survival in the galaxy far, far away. If The Force isn't so strong with you, allow us to guide you to all the Stim Upgrade locations in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

We will outline where to find each Stim organized by the planet they're on, so minor spoilers ahead if you haven't seen every planet in the game yet.
All Stim Upgrades on Coruscant
Undercity Meats

Read more