In early 2021 Lucasfilm Games was reborn. Two days later, the newly formed banner announced a Ubisoft-developed Star Wars game, ending EA’s uneven eight-year run as the franchise's exclusive video game steward.
In the year since, Lucasfilm Games’ mission has become clear: partner with acclaimed talent across a host of different companies to create a genre-spanning portfolio of Star Wars games that reaches as many audiences as possible. It's not unlike the Marvel Games playbook that arm of Disney has been working with over the last few years.
Consider the eight known Star Wars games currently in development. The projects are being made by seven different studios, each renowned in their respective areas of expertise, and collectively cover every major gaming platform. They touch on the most popular genres — action-adventure, strategy, first-person shooter, RPG, soulslike, arena battler, open-world, single-player, multiplayer — and range from free-to-play to full-priced, action-heavy to narrative-focused, family-friendly to mature.
There's something for nearly every type of player, and chances are there’s still more to come. For now, however, let’s dive deeper into all eight known new Star Wars games currently in development, beginning with the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a family-friendly action-adventure due out April 5. The Skywalker Saga retells all nine mainline Star Wars movies, making it longtime LEGO developer TT Games’ biggest project yet.
It’s been a fairly long, allegedly difficult road to The Skywalker Saga. Development began back in 2017, and it was initially slated for a 2020 release. However, it would be subject to multiple delays before landing on its April 5, 2022, release date.
TT Games is making The Skywalker Saga in an all-new engine, with LEGO Dimensions co-director James McLoughlin at the helm. And while it covers the three Star Wars film trilogies, it isn't a remaster of TT Games' previous LEGO Star Wars outings, but rather something new entirely.
Alongside the recent release date announcement, the developer debuted a six-minute Skywalker Saga gameplay overview.
Star Wars: Hunters
The second Star Wars game due out this year is Star Wars: Hunters, a free-to-play, team-based multiplayer game for Nintendo Switch and mobile.
Hunters is set during the same time period as The Mandolorian — after the fall of the Galactic Empire, between the events of Star Wars Episodes 6 and 7. Its playable characters include a bounty hunter, Wookiee, droid, Imperial soldier, rebel, and a pair of Jawa brothers that stand on each other’s shoulders Vincent Adultman style. Gameplay arenas, meanwhile, feature iconic Star Wars settings such as Hoth and Endor.
Hunters will be the first console game developed by mobile gaming giant Zynga, which is set to be acquired by Take-Two. Zynga built a new studio to develop Hunters back in 2020, led by Jeff Hickman and Matthew Hemby, two industry veterans with experience at BioWare.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2
A sequel to 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is officially in development, EA and Lucasfilm Games confirmed in early 2022. The sequel is being led by game director Stig Asmussen at Respawn Entertainment — the same director and studio behind the original.
Star Wars Jedi was previously confirmed to be the start of a new franchise, after the first game exceeded EA’s sales expectations and went on to become the second best-selling Star Wars game of all time (in the U.S.), as of March 2021. Fallen Order was a pivotal game for Respawn; it proved the developer’s prowess outside of first-person shooters and solidified it as EA’s premier Star Wars studio.
In our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order review, we called it “fantastic single-player action-adventure that marks the return of the playable Jedi.” Fallen Order also earned a spot on our list of the best soulslike games.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake
BioWare’s acclaimed Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic is being remade “from the ground up” by Aspyr, the studio behind recent Star Wars ports of Republic Commando and Jedi Academy.
The KOTOR remake, announced during Sony’s PlayStation Showcase 2021, will maintain the “integrity of story and character from the original,” according to lead producer Ryan Treadwell. Assisting Treadwell on that mission is a group of developers who previously worked on the Demon’s Souls remake, Ghost of Tsushima, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the original KOTOR. Also returning from the original game is voice actor Jennifer Hale, reprising her role as Bastila Shan.
Originally released in 2003 for Xbox and PC, KOTOR is widely considered one of the best RPGs of all time. It also sits atop our list of the 10 best Star Wars games.
The remake is only announced for PS5 and PC. However, a later release on Xbox is possible given its label as a “console exclusive at launch” for PlayStation.
Respawn’s Star Wars FPS
Alongside its Jedi: Fallen Order sequel, Respawn is developing an all-new Star Wars first-person shooter.
Development on the FPS is being led by Peter Hirschmann, a former VP of development at LucasArts and executive producer on the original Battlefront games. More recently, Hirschmann directed Respawn's VR shooter Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.
Details may be scarce, but Hirschmann did provide some hints about what we can expect from the shooter, saying he’s “always been inspired by the classic Star Wars titles Dark Forces and Dark Forces II.” He added, “I've never forgotten the emotion and excitement I felt playing an FPS inside the Star Wars universe. They are defining experiences for many of us on the team, and are a guiding light for this new project.”
The shooter, along with Respawn’s two other Star Wars projects, will be overseen by studio founder Vince Zampella.
Ubisoft Open-World Star Wars
In early 2021 Ubisoft and Lucasfilm Games announced an open-world Star Wars project, officially signaling the end of EA’s long-held Star Wars video game exclusivity.