I’m Not Even A Star Wars Fan, But I’m Sad Respawn’s FPS Has Been Canceled

Full disclosure: I’m no one’s idea of a Star Wars “fan.” I can barely tell a Jawa from a Wookie…okay if you showed me a picture, I’d tell the difference, but you get what I mean. Star Wars is a franchise I’m obviously familiar with, but it’s one I’ve never gone through the effort of diving deep into. It’s a series I tend to keep at arm’s length, letting the fans enjoy what they enjoy without getting too involved myself.

What I am a fan of, though, is Star Wars video games, especially the recent titles put out by Respawn Entertainment. The studio’s Star Wars titles are both fantastic and, even as a non-fan, it feels to me like Respawn showed a real, genuine love for the franchise when making those games. Hence why it breaks my heart that the team’s in-development first-person shooter title got thrown in the can. There’s a part of me that feels like EA just missed a huge opportunity by letting this game go to waste.

Respawn Was Making A Star Wars FPS?

For those that aren’t in the know, yes, EA and Respawn Entertainment were working on a first-person shooter in the Star Wars franchise. This was first announced in January 2022 when Respawn, fresh off of the success of 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, announced three upcoming Star Wars projects. One was the first-person shooter title, one was a strategy game in partnership with Bit Reactor, and the other was the sequel to Fallen Order, which we would receive in 2023 as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Little was publicly revealed of what this first-person shooter title would entail, other than that it was being handled by Peter Hirshmann, a game director at Respawn with a long-established history of creating Star Wars titles, including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and the classic Star Wars: Battlefront titles. Not long before its eventual cancelation, it was also reported that the game would be centered around a Mandalorian bounty hunter. It was also said to be a fast-paced, linear single-player title taking place in a period when the galaxy was dominated by the Galactic Empire.

All of this sounds fantastic, but fate unfortunately had other plans. In late February, EA announced a 670-person layoff – roughly 5% of its workforce – across a variety of its owned studios, one of a worrying number of layoffs affecting the gaming industry today. Along with this came the news that EA would be shutting down the development of this planned Star Wars FPS game. While Respawn will continue to make Star Wars titles – a Jedi: Survivor follow-up and the aforementioned strategy game are still in the works – this FPS title didn’t survive, and that’s a damn shame.

Related

Star Wars: Dark Forces Reminded Me How Cool Old Level Design Was

The charm of a sandbox filled with secrets to uncover.

This Could’ve Been A Slam Dunk

Across the board, losing this Star Wars FPS is truly heartbreaking, as this is the kind of game that truly could’ve been something special. Sure, the Star Wars franchise is certainly not starving for new games, and there are certainly good first-person shooter Star Wars titles like Star Wars: Republic Commando and the Star Wars Battlefront games, many of which are readily available on current consoles. With that said, if there’s one developer that could create a truly incredible single-player FPS game in the Star Wars universe, it’s Respawn Entertainment.

Compared to the multiplayer-centric Battlefront titles that have been dominating lately, we haven’t gotten a single-player Star Wars FPS since Republic Commando’s original release in 2005. In a gaming landscape that’s become so bloated with multiplayer shooters and live-service titles, it’s refreshing when a first-person shooter comes along and brings a good single-player campaign along for the ride. A game like the one Respawn was making felt like it was pulling all the right strings to become a truly special title.

Even though this writer knows little about Star Wars, the choice to base this game on a Mandalorian protagonist sounds like it would’ve been fantastic. The Mandalorian has become an incredibly popular Star Wars series since its release in 2019, and in a franchise that’s been known for its up-and-down reception in the last few years, this has been by far one of the most well-received Star Wars releases in recent memory. It’s even receiving a film adaptation, The Mandalorian & Grogu, in 2026, a time when this game was seemingly supposed to release and could’ve served as an excellent tie-in.

Respawn Entertainment has also clearly shown that it has a very real love and care for Star Wars as a franchise. The Star Wars: Jedi games, beyond being incredibly fun to play, feel incredibly respectful of the Star Wars lineage and even feature elements that make this non-fan nerd out a little bit. This is clearly not a developer who simply wanted to make a Star Wars game just because the name is glamorous; the passion is absolutely there, and if EA is to continue making Star Wars games, this is undoubtedly the developer to hand them to.

In the context of the game’s genre, Respawn also has very clear experience in this regard. The studio itself was formed by Jason West and Vince Zampella, two former Infinity Ward heads who were instrumental in the creation of 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, to date the franchise’s peak. Respawn has continued to show success in the FPS genre with Apex Legends, and the team also crafted a phenomenal single-player FPS campaign with 2016’s Titanfall 2. This genre is right in the developer’s wheelhouse, and it seemed like the kind of game that the team could easily excel with.

Across the board, Respawn’s Star Wars FPS sounded like a match made in Heaven. Giving a team with clear first-person shooter experience the chance to develop a game in a franchise it has shown a clear love and respect for just seemed like a layup. Everything was falling perfectly into place until the industry came along and forced its hand. This really could’ve been another special game for Respawn, and it’s a crying shame it won’t get to see the light of day now.

Next

Star Wars Outlaws Looks Like Another Tired, Open World Game

It screams ‘product’ in my face.