Publisher Ubisoft and The Division series developer Massive Entertainment have entered into a partnership with Lucasfilm Games to develop an open-world Star Wars game, the companies announced.
Development on the new title is still very early, and Massive Entertainment is still recruiting staff for the project. The Division 2 and The Crew director Julian Gerighty will serve as the game’s creative director, and it will use the Snowdrop Engine.
The Massive Entertainment-developed Star Wars game is the first major Star Wars game not developed by Electronic Arts to be announced in eight years.
Speaking to Wired, Disney Global Games and Interactive Experiences senior vice president Sean Shopaw said, “Electronic Arts has been and will continue to be a very strategic and important partner for us now and going forward. But we did feel like there’s room for others.”
This opens the door for other publishers and developers to pitch their ideas for stories to Lucasfilm Games, which ultimately has “final approval over everything,” according to Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly. “We get no shortage of folks knocking on our door, wanting to play with our toys,” he said.
“This is really the culmination of years of preparing to come out and say, ‘We’re here, we’ve got a team of people, we’re going to make a lot of great games, and here’s some new things you weren’t expecting from us to do that we’re now starting to do,’” said Reilly in a Star Wars blog post. “And that’s going to continue throughout the next year or so, where we’re going to continue to announce projects that are more representative of the legacy of the old Lucasfilm Games that we’re now trying to live up to.”
Here are comments from Ubisoft and Lucasfilm on the announcement:
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO
“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.”
Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm President
“As we look to the next 50 years of Lucasfilm, we look forward to continuing the wonderful legacy in games, which has introduced so many memorable characters and stories. These new collaborations will allow the Lucasfilm Games team to pursue fresh and exciting directions in the storytelling of Star Wars and Indiana Jones in imaginative and different ways than those explored by our films.”