EA cancel open world Star Wars bounty hunter title!

For many years before Disney purchased Lucasfilm video game developer, publisher, and licensor Lucasarts was responsible for the production of many Star Wars video games, most of which have since become cult classic titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, Rogue Squadron and the original Star Wars: Battlefront II. However, in 2013 Disney fired virtually all of the staff at Lucasarts and canceled all of the Star Wars titles in development (such as Star Wars: 1313), retaining the company in name only as a licensor, with all subsequent Star Wars video games to be developed and published by EA. EA's first Star Wars title, a reboot of Star Wars: Battlefront, while graphically impressive proved to be poorly developed and designed and was subsequently slated by many fans, players and critics. Surprisingly EA acknowledged their shortcomings and promised a much better gaming experience with the sequel Star Wars: Battlefront II. Sadly while the beta of Battlefront II showcased a much superior game than its predecessor, upon launch EA incorporated an unbalanced pay-to-win "star card" system that inherently undid all of EA's hard work.

More recently EA dissolved the Dead Space developer Visceral Games before they could finish development on the eagerly anticipated yet untitled single-player adventure Star Wars game (pictured below) that was in development. However, according to Kotaku Visceral Games' Star Wars game is no longer in development, with the game's assets having been used by EA Vancouver to develop a grand multiplayer, open world experience in which players would take on the role of a bounty hunter with the entire Star Wars galaxy as their playground. But before you get excited a the prospect of becoming the next Boba Fett or Cad Bane, according to the same report from Kotaku, this game, undoubtedly Star Wars' answer to Destiny has also been canceled.

Instead, EA is reportedly working on a smaller scale, single player Star Wars title that is expected to be released in early 2020, which will likely intend on capitalizing on the assumed success of the as-of-yet untitled Star Wars: Episode IX. Interestingly EA's downsizing of their development of Star Wars titles comes at a time when many fans and commentators are questioning whether or not EA should continue developing Star Wars video games.