Electronic Arts has cancelled another Star Wars game, this time an open-world title in development at EA Vancouver.
Kotaku reports that the game, codenamed Orca, was still in the early phases of development. The outlet reports that EA decided to cancel the project because the publisher feared the game would not be ready for a 2020 release date. EA Vancouver will instead begin work on another, “smaller-scale” Star Wars game.
Little is known about Orca except that it was to feature open-world gameplay. Job listings in early 2018 suggested that the game would have had an online component as well, including matchmaking and live services. According to Kotaku, Orca would have allowed players to “explore various open-world planets and work with different factions” with either a “scoundrel or bounty hunter” character.
Orca was actually born out of the ashes of another cancelled game being designed by the now-shuttered Visceral Games. That project was called Ragtag and it would have featured a band of rogues led by a scoundrel named Dodger, as they went on heists across the galaxy. Ragtag was described as “Star Wars meets Ocean’s Eleven” and would have been set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, tackling story beats such as the aftermath of the destruction of Alderaan.
Unlike Visceral, EA Vancouver will get another shot at a Star Wars game. Details on the new project are very scarce at the moment, but at least the team in Vancouver still get to work on a Star Wars title.
There’s also Star Wars: Jedi – Fallen Order to look forward to, which is an action adventure title from Respawn Entertainment that will be set between Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more, on all fronts.