After eight years, this is the first time that it’s not Electronic Arts who is responsible for a new Star Wars game!

Lucasfilm Games‘ revival quickly lit up the media – MachineGames, responsible for the Wolfenstein games since 2014, has been confirmed to develop an Indiana Jones title (and it might not be a PC/Xbox-exclusive, despite the studio being under Bethesda, whose acquisition by Microsoft will be finalized this year), and now, it’s time for the second announcement – Ubisoft announced that Massive Entertainment, known for The Division (currently developing the new Avatar game), is now making an open-world Star Wars title.

Its development is in an early phase, and Massive is recruiting staff for the project. Two things are confirmed. One, its creative director will be The Division 2 and The Crew director Julian Gerighty, and two, it will use the Snowdrop Engine.

„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,” Disney Global Games and Interactive Experiences senior vice president Sean Shopaw told Wired. In other words, Electronic Arts has simply not done enough with the Star Wars license.

Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly added that this move allows other developers and publishers to contact them about story ideas, and this company will have the final approval. „We get no shortage of folks knocking on our door, wanting to play with our toys. This is 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 are some new things you weren’t expecting from us to do that we’re now starting to do,’ 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.”

„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, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO said. „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,” Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm President added.

Because of this announcement, we doubt that there would be a third The Division game, seeing how Massive is focusing on Avatar at the moment.

Source: Gematsu