It looks like Disney isn’t quite ready to withdraw their Star Wars license from Electronic Arts after all. And that’s because according to a recent job listing, it appears that EA’s Vancouver studio is busy hiring for “an open-world project” set in that galaxy far far away.
Specifically, the job listing is for a lead online engineer to help implement “online features,” into their yet-to-be-announced Star Wars game. Interestingly, the description doesn’t mention anything about knowledge or experience with the Frostbite Engine, which likely means that this upcoming Star Wars title is unrelated to the Battlefront series and unconnected to the Star Wars project Visceral Games and Amy Hennig were working on (before Visceral were shuttered). Both those aforementioned titles were running on the Frostbite Engine, so it’s very possible that this new open-world Star Wars project is a completely different game.
Last year, EA announced that it would be closing down Visceral and re-focusing the development of its long-in-gestation story-focused single-player title. The official word from the publisher was that the company wanted Visceral’s narrative-driven game to be “a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.”
Essentially, EA made the decision to re-shape Visceral’s work on their single-player title into a more multiplayer-centric experience, more akin to an online-focused game like Destiny. As you can imagine, many fans were disappointed with the company’s decision to pivot from a story-focused experience (which Visceral, the acclaimed developer of the Dead Space series, are well-known for) to something more ‘games as a service.’
As for the here and now, it’s looking very likely that this yet-to-be-announced open-world Star Wars title is a brand-new game set in the Mouse House’s sci-fi universe. Only time will tell, but we’ll keep you posted as more information comes to light.
