Titanfall and Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment is going to be busy, busy, busy these next handful of years. Following the success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, publisher Electronic Arts seems intent on turning Respawn into its lead developer on all things related to Lucasfilm. Earlier today, EA announced that Respawn has not just one, but three Star Wars games on its schedule. One of which is, of course, the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. But the company is also producing a first-person shooter and a real-time strategy game.
“We are excited to continue working with the superbly talented developers at Respawn,” said Douglas Reilly, VP, Lucasfilm Games, in a press release. “They have demonstrated excellence in telling epic Star Wars stories along with best-in-class gameplay across different genres and we are looking forward to bringing more amazing experiences to the galaxy far, far away.”
The Jedi: Fallen Order sequel is predicted to release this year or next, and should be first out the gate. As mentioned, there are two others, which will likely launch sometime after. Respawn is working on a Star Wars FPS with Game Director Peter Hirschmann at the helm. The third game is part of a collaboration effort with the recently formed studio Bit Reactor. Made up of former Firaxis (XCOM) developers, Bit Reactor is in charge of creating a Star Wars RTS game. The studio was co-founded by Greg Foertsch, who promised the team would bring about “a golden age of turn-based games.”
That’s all good, but what about Battlefront?
All the new EA-produced Star Wars games aside, you have to wonder: where does this leave Star Wars Battlefront III? According to a report by VentureBeat, DICE is not making a new Battlefront game. Today’s announcement is a not-so-subtle hint that Respawn is now the main team making Star Wars games for the publisher. DICE, in the meantime, is still handling the messy and maligned Battlefield 2042.
Beyond the announcement, we don’t know much about the two non-Fallen Order games. The primary reason for the release is to pretty much announce a hiring call for developers interested in joining Respawn on developing the three games. In other words, we won’t hear about the shooter or strategy game for quite some time.
Published: Jan 25, 2022 12:00 pm