Plug reportedly pulled on meandering project
According to a report from Kotaku,Electronic Arts has cancelled productionof its open-worldStar Warstitle. Originally designed byDead Space-helmers Visceral Games andUncharted’sAmy Hennig, EA Vancouver took over the project in October of 2017, after Visceral’s closure.
The project, originally known as “Ragtag“, then bounced around various teams, directors and re-designs. Conceived by Visceral as a single-player action-adventure, EA wanted to moldRagtag– completely rebooted by EA Vancouver as “Orca” – into a large-scale open-world game. Kotaku’s report suggests thatOrcahad becomesoambitious, that EA’s head honchos finally brought the hammer down, wanting a conceptually simpler title that can be pushed out to the public much sooner.
EA’s lastStar Wars-themed game,Battlefront II, was a PR disaster for the publisher.The avarice on display when it came to that game’s loot box/character unlock system angered fans, leading to controversies that received mainstream news attention and allegedly stern words from Disney. IfRagtag/Orcawasn’t already in trouble then, it’s possible theBattlefrontfallout puts allStar Warsdevelopment under much scrutiny from nervous executives.
As of yet, there has been no official word from Electronic Arts on this cancellation, but you can read the full report at the link below. Ending on a lighter note, those muddyfunsters at Devolver Digitalgot in on the action, tweeting out that, handed the opportunity, they’d gladly take their own shot at a galaxy far, far away.
EA cancels open world Star Wars game[Kotaku]
