Disney Wants To 'Massively Increase' Star Wars Game Output
"The Star Wars games are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers." While the early-00s were hardly remembered as the peak of Star Wars fandom, Disney's purchase of the galaxy far, far away, in 2012 was a turning point for the franchise. Now, the House of Mouse might've unveiled its grand plans for where we go next.
Alongside a renewed interest outside the main Skywalker Saga thanks to the various Disney+ shows, the franchise overlord wants to apply the same cut and paste formula to its video game output. We've got a lot on the horizon, and alongside Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, there's Quantic Dreams' Star Wars Eclipse, Ubisoft's open-world Star Wars game, and another mysterious title from Respawn that's apparently a first-person shooter.
How Many Star Wars Games Does Disney Want?
If that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, Disney is apparently making a push for multiple Star Wars games every year. According to Insider Gaming, our Star Wars overlords want a new game to release every six months. We imagine Kathleen Kennedy is sitting there and rubbing her hands like her very own Sheev Palpatine.
The site lists the current slate of eight announced games, which includes all of the above and adds the likes of Amy Hennig's secret project from Skydance Media. As some of these games are reportedly over our years away, Disney wants to ramp up development. This Tatooine-inspired podrace to the finish line was apparently kickstarted when Electronic Arts lost the rights to exclusivity on the franchise.
Although it was a good run from EA delivering the likes of the Battlefront games and Jedi: Fallen Order, we've now thrown open the doors for anyone and everyone to sign up to the Empire. The suggestion is that there would be one AAA title and a smaller outing every fiscal year. At least it would fill the rumoured gap that could leave us waiting until 2026 for Eclipse.
What Other Star Wars Games Are On The Way?
Click to enlargeThe big one we're obviously expecting to be announced is the long-rumoured Mandalorian game. If the success of Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian wasn't enough to tempt the fates, God of War's Cory Barlog has even thrown his hat in the ring to tackle a Mando game. There have been whispers of an Xbox-exclusive Mandalorian game, but so far, nothing has come to pass.
Multiple Star Wars games every year are definitely an exciting prospect, but as we saw with Crystal Dynamics' Marvel's Avengers being a poor man's version of Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man, there are inevitably going to be some that are weaker than others. You can't dilute the brand too much, and although Star Wars is doing its bit to match the might of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+, there's the inevitable question of when these IPs will drop the ball.