Ubisoft Is Making An Open-World Star Wars Game

Ubisoft announced this morning that they will be working with Lucasfilm Games to create a story-driven, open-world Star Wars game. This follows yesterday’s news that Bethesda would be working with the company to make an Indiana Jones game.

This new announcement comes from Wired, who got to speak with the companies a bit more in depth regarding this announcement. Ubisoft’s game will be developed by Massive Entertainment, known for The Division. It’s still very early in development, so the team is currently in the process of staffing for the project. Julian Gerighty, who directed The Division 2 and The Crew, will be the creative director of this new game. It will also use Massive’s Snowdrop game engine. No other details about the game were given.

Ubisoft making a Star Wars game is noteworthy because for the past eight years, EA has had an exclusivity deal with Disney, making them the only company able to make games in the Star Wars universe. This exclusivity period was expected to last for 10 years, ending in 2023, but it appears as if plans are changing. EA will continue to make Star Wars games though.

”EA has been and will continue to be a very strategic and important partner for us now and going forward,” Sean Shoptaw, senior vice president of Global Games and Interactive Experiences at Disney, said to Wired. “But we did feel like there’s room for others.”

The most recent Star Wars releases from EA were Star Wars Squadrons and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, games that were received well by critics. Prior to these were Star Wars Battlefront II, a game that was surrounded by heavy controversy at its launch due to its implementation of loot boxes. Given these circumstances, and the fact that EA hasn’t released that many major games in the franchise during the eight years it’s had the exclusivity deal, it makes sense that Disney would be eager to let other companies have a chance to make games in that universe.

Cofounder and CEO of Ubisoft, Uves Guillemot, also spoke about the new partnership.

“The Star Wars galaxy is an amazing source of motivation for our teams to innovate and push the boundaries of our medium. Building new worlds, characters and stories that will become lasting parts of the Star Wars lore is an incredible opportunity for us, and we are excited to have our Ubisoft Massive studio working closely with Lucasfilm Games to create an original Star Wars adventure that is different from anything that has been done before.”

Yves Guillemot, Cofounder and CEO of Ubisoft

It’s likely to be a long time before we see what exactly this new game is, but with Ubisoft’s typical open-world design and the Star Wars universe, it would be too surprising if it’s a truly massive one with lots to see and do.