Shortly after Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson announced plans to cut 5% of the studio's workforce, EA's entertainment and technology president Laura Miele said the company has also decided to cancel a Star Wars FPS that was in development at Respawn and close the studio that was working on the singleplayer campaign for the next Battlefield game.
The project was one of three Star Wars games in the works at Respawn that were announced in early 2022, a year after EA committed to sticking with the franchise despite the loss of its exclusivity deal with Disney. But now it's decided to change direction.
"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," Miele said. "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."
It's a genuinely surprising move, given the massive recognition factor of the brand: Apex Legends is big, but Star Wars is, well, Star Wars.
But aside from the Star Wars Jedi games Miele referenced, EA has struggled to get major Star Wars games out the door. A heavily-hyped project headed by Amy Hennig codenamed Ragtag was first retooled and ultimately cancelled in 2019 after years of stalled development, and that same year EA reportedly also cancelled a Star Wars Battlefront spinoff game codenamed Viking.
While Respawn's Star Wars adventure has come to a premature end, Miele said the next Battlefield game is "making meaningful progress." Following the departure of Marcus Lehto, however, development of the singleplayer campaign he was heading up at Ridgeline Games has now been moved to Criterion. Ridgeline, which was just opened in 2022, will be closed.
