One of the upcoming Star Wars games under the Electronic Arts banner will be an open world offering for next-gen platforms, and it is in development at EA Canada. The news comes from a job listing spotted by Kotaku, which reads: “EA Canada is looking for an experienced Animation director to help define and deliver on the vision for a major new next gen open world action game.”
The game would likely be the second or possibly third AAA title released following EA’s recent deal with Disney and Lucasfilms, which grants the publisher 10 years of exclusivity for Star Wars video games. Expect to see everything from console to mobile to possibly Facebook games based on Star Wars and bearing the mark of EA, but the first major release will be DICE’s Star Wars: Battlefront. The next AAA release, however, may come from EA Canada or from Dead Space developer EA Redwood Shores (formerly Visceral Games). Or possibly both.
Earlier this year, EA Canada confirmed that it was working on an open-world title while hiring a combat designer, but it gave no details on the game. The studio later confirmed that the game would in fact be a Star Wars game, and this job posting now seemingly confirms it will be a next-gen open world game set in a galaxy far, far away. EA Redwood Shores is also working on a Star Wars project, but nothing more is known about it other than it is in the very early stages of development. Based on two other job listings for executive producers though, EA Canada and EA Redwood Shores may be working on the same project.
The listings are almost identical in their wording, and both ask for a someone who has experience with “multi-site development.” As Kotaku also notes, open world games are massive endeavors, and EA Canada recently cut its non-sports related staff. Ubisoft’s recent open world game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag had over 900 people working on it, so it would make sense that EA Canada would need help.
Beyond that, we can only guess as to the details. EA CFO Blake Jorgensen recently confirmed that the upcoming Star Wars games would be considered their own franchise and not directly tied in to the upcoming movies, so the open world game could be set anywhere in that universe, at any time. Let the speculation begin!
