EA Reportedly Canceled Another Star Wars Game in 2019 | Game Rant
A new report claims that Electronic Arts canceled a previously unknown Star Wars project in 2019. The Star Wars project is said to have been in development at EA Vancouver in partnership with Criterion. Codename "Viking," the game would have been a spin-off of the Star Wars: Battlefront series with open-world elements. However, the Star Wars project was apparently canceled once EA executives realized it wouldn't be ready for release in time for the launch of next-gen consoles.
According to Kotaku's exclusive reporting, the Star Wars game's existence and cancelation was confirmed through six different anonymous sources familiar with the project and EA's "inner workings." It's unclear what drove the news about the cancelation public, as the Star Wars project's development was said to have ended in the first half of 2019.
The story of project Viking's development is as troubled as most Star Wars games at EA. Those familiar with the past 7 years of Star Wars games at EA know that Viking isn't the first Star Wars game that's been canceled. It's, in fact, the third Star Wars game to be killed off. Viking's development can even be directly tied to that of the previous two canceled projects. Perhaps it carried over those projects' bad luck.
The first canceled Star Wars project was codenamed Ragtag, made by Visceral Games and Uncharted 2 director Amy Hennig. EA canceled Ragtag in 2017, closing Visceral in the process. A new project using some of Ragtag's assets went to EA Vancouver. This open-world Star Wars game, codenamed Orca, was then canceled in 2018. EA Vancouver then took on a small project, what would become Viking, for release in late 2020. This third game is what's now been revealed to have been canceled as well.
EA Vancouver has now moved on to supporting BioWare and Respawn on their respective projects, Anthem and Apex Legends, while Criterion is working on the latest iteration of Need for Speed. The legacy of Visceral may truly now be put to bed.
The future of Star Wars at Electronic Arts is certainly different than what it was in 2013, when EA signed its partnership with Disney. The aspiration the publisher had for big, awesome Star Wars games in 2013 is exhausting for fans to look back on. Meanwhile, the two Star Wars projects EA now has in the works, a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and a reportedly smaller project at EA Motive, are much smaller in scale than previous plans. Maybe the next 10 years for Star Wars games will work out better.
Source: Kotaku
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