EA has announced that it will develop three new games in the “Star Wars” universe. All of them are being developed by Respawn Entertainment. A shooter has also been announced. MeinMMO explains what this means and why fans of shooters and Star Wars alike might have reason to rejoice.
On January 25, EA announced that Respawn Entertainment will be responsible for three new “Star Wars” games:
- The successor to the single-player action-adventure Jedi Fallen Order is coming.
- A strategy game is being developed by the new studio Bit Reactor, in collaboration with Respawn.
- Peter Hirschmann is leading the development of a first-person shooter.
But who is Peter Hirschmann? And what does that tell us about the potential direction of the game? Is this the leaked single-player shooter, or is the announced FPS a different game?
We explain why Respawn Entertainment is an important name in the shooter genre and who the named developers are. From this information, we try to figure out what the shooter in the “Star Wars” universe might look like – and why you should expect two shooters.
What we already know about the “Star Wars” shooter
There is little information in EA’s announcement that a “Star Wars” shooter is being developed. However, they already provide many hints about what we can expect from the new game. The announcement stated the following about the announced shooter:
The development leadership of Respawn’s completely new Star Wars first-person shooter will be taken over by Peter Hirschmann, Game Director at Respawn, who already has a long and successful history with the “Star Wars” franchise. […]
“Working with Lucasfilm Games on a new FPS in the Star Wars galaxy is a dream come true for me because this is a story I’ve always wanted to tell,” said Peter Hirschmann, Game Director at Respawn. Peter worked as Vice President of Development at LucasArts and was the Executive Producer of the original “Star Wars Battlefront” games. Hirschmann and his team at Respawn have just begun development.
EA in the official statement
From these sentences, we can already read some information.
- Respawn Entertainment itself is responsible for the development of a Star Wars shooter.
- This shooter will be played from a first-person perspective.
- Peter Hirschmann is taking charge of development and has previously developed “Star Wars” shooters.
- The shooter will likely tell a new story, so it may have a campaign.
- A new story also implies that it will not be a retelling of or a (direct) sequel to known “Star Wars” stories.
- Development of the game has only just begun, so a lot of time will pass before release.
The separate mention of the Battlefront games is a clear indication that this is not Star Wars Battlefront 3. The game was also never in development, says journalist Jeff Grubb on Twitter.
Furthermore, it is said that it will not be a VR game (via Twitter). These rumors arose because Hirschmann’s last project with his team at Respawn was the VR FPS Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.
Based on the current information, it is reasonable to assume that the new shooter will offer a multiplayer mode. This is supported not only by Hirschmann’s and Respawn’s expertise in the area of multiplayer shooters. Allegedly, another shooter project in the Star Wars universe is also being developed at Respawn, which focuses on a single-player experience.
Respawn is reportedly working on two “Star Wars” shooters
Journalist Jeff Grubb reported on January 13, 2022, that Respawn is working on a single-player shooter set in the Star Wars universe. This shooter is said to place great emphasis on “mobility” and “style” and will not be released before 2024 or 2025 (via VentureBeat).
Following the new announcements, he clarified on Twitter that the announced shooter is a different project than the one he described.
Fans of shooters and Star Wars can therefore look forward to two new shooters – even if both will likely not be released for a few years.
The developer studio Respawn, which is said to be responsible for both shooters, has already gained a lot of experience in the genre. They are responsible for some of the biggest shooters on the market.
“Star Wars” shooter comes from the developers behind Apex Legends and Call of Duty
Who are the developers? Respawn Entertainment is well-known in 2022 primarily due to Apex Legends. The free-to-play “battle royale” will celebrate its 3rd anniversary in February and is one of the most popular shooters on the market today. On Steam, it is among the most played games. It is also a big hit on Twitch.
Although Apex Legends is the first major success of the developer studio, they already had a small but loyal fan base before. Respawn is also responsible for the Titanfall games. In particular, Titanfall 2 is an absolute hidden gem among shooter fans thanks to its popular campaign and fast-paced multiplayer. However, Respawn never achieved success with Titanfall – it was a critical darling that received too little attention at the time.
The shooter expertise that the developers have shown with Apex Legends and Titanfall did not come out of nowhere. Most of the developers at Respawn Entertainment, including the founders, were originally the core of the developer studio Infinity Ward.
Respawn founders invented Call of Duty: As Infinity Ward, today’s developers of Respawn were responsible for the first “Call of Duty” games. After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, there was an equally public and ugly dispute between Activision and the “fathers of Call of Duty”, Vince Zampella and Jason West (via gamestar).
Zampella and West were fired in 2010 and subsequently founded Respawn Entertainment with many other former colleagues. Infinity Ward, which developed the new CoD Modern Warfare for Activision in 2019, did so under the old name and with many new developers.
These “Star Wars” shooters already existed
Since 1983, there have been video games in the “Star Wars” universe; the very first was a first-person shooter. In Star Wars Arcade, gamers could replay Luke Skywalker’s attack on the Death Star in Episode 4 in arcades. In the cockpit of the X-Wing, players moved a reticle and shot at the villains in what is considered primitive graphics today.
This is how it looked in motion:
In the nearly 40 years since the arcade game, there have been many more “Star Wars” video games. Surprisingly few of them were shooters. Apart from games that also took place in the cockpit of a starfighter, there were primarily two game series and one separate title that have combined Star Wars and shooters: The Jedi Knight series, the Battlefront games, and Republic Commando.
The Jedi Knight series
First up is the “Jedi Knight” series, also known as the “Kyle Katarn” games due to the shared protagonist. Four games have been released in this series. To this day, they remain some of the favorite games among Star Wars fans. The first of these was Star Wars: Dark Forces from 1995, and the most recent, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy from 2003.
Where Dark Forces was a pure FPS, the series became increasingly known for its popular lightsaber gameplay. Jedi Knight II, paradoxically the third part of the series, was only half an FPS. The most recent installment, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, was almost entirely an action-adventure with lightsabers.
The Battlefront games
Also noteworthy is Star Wars Battlefront. There are four games, which have now been oddly named. There were Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront 2 from the developer Pandemic Studios (released in 2004 and 2005), as well as Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II from DICE (released in 2015 and 2017).
These shooters were heavily inspired by the Battlefield games, placing great emphasis on gigantic multiplayer matches with many players. Infantry battles were also represented, as well as space battles, and famous heroes from the universe were playable.
Republic Commando
A often-overlooked Star Wars shooter is Star Wars Republic Commando, which was released in 2005. In this single-player FPS, you played as a squad of clone soldiers, where you could give commands to the team. Thus, the shooter had a strategic layer that not many other shooters have copied to this day.
For this reason, Republic Commando has a cult status, especially among Star Wars fans. Although it received average reviews and had few buyers, the gameplay resonated well with them.
These are the shooters that have already appeared in the “Star Wars” universe. Whether the new shooters will directly connect to any of these games is doubtful.
We can most likely assume that the new shooters will not be Battlefront 3. The fact that a new story is to be told with the announced shooter also suggests that it will not be related to Jedi Knight or Republic Commando. However, these are just speculations.
What do you think about the announcements? Which “Star Wars” game are you most looking forward to? And what do you wish for from the upcoming “Star Wars” shooters? Let us know in the comments.
On the same day as the EA announcements, Blizzard also presented a new game. It is a survival game that is still early in development. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has smartly discovered some details that we do not want to withhold from you:
5 details about the new survival game from Blizzard that you may have overlooked
