Respawn are making three new Star Wars games, including a new strategy game with former XCOM devs

Three new Star Wars games are in development at EA. Respawn are leading the projects, working on “the next chapter” in the Star Wars Jedi story, an “all-new first-person shooter”, and partnering with new studio Bit Reactor on a “new Star Wars strategy game.”

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came out in 2019 and a sequel has been long rumoured. According to the announcement, Stig Asmussen is again leading work on the sequel, although there are no other details on what the game is about.

There are similarly scant details on the other two games. The FPS is being led by Peter Hirschmann, who holds credits on a slew of mid-2000s Star Wars games, including Force Unleashed, Empire At War and the original (not DICE) Star Wars Battlefronts.

The strategy game, meanwhile, is being produced by Respawn but developed by Bit Reactor, the studio announced last week from former Firaxis developers. The team is led by XCOM art director Greg Foertsch, and also includes concept artists, character artists and animators from the XCOM games.

Fallen Order was good, but I’m more interested in the all-new games than the sequels. I haven’t played a Star Wars strategy game since 2006’s Empire At War, and a turn-based strategy game with some XCOM pedigree would be immediately interesting. EA Dice’s Battlefront games, meanwhile, didn’t scratch the itch for me other than looking and sounding a lot like Star Wars. Respawn have a good track record with first-person shooters, too, between Titanfall and Apex Legends.

There are now a frankly ridiculous number of Star Wars games in-development, between these three, Ubisoft’s open world, Quantic Dream’s inevitable disappointment, and the imminent (and troubled) Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.