Star Wars Strategy Game From EA Still In The Works Following FPS' Reported Cancellation, Mass Layoffs

A Star Wars strategy game set to be published by EA is still in the works, with the development team confirming the game was "unaffected" by recent EA layoffs.

Last week EA laid off around 670 people, about 5% of its staff. As part of the mass layoff, multiple in-the-works projects were also canceled. That reportedly included an unnamed Star Wars FPS in development at Apex Legends and Star Wars Jed developer Respawn.

Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn.
But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week's news.
— BIT REACTOR (@bitreactor) March 2, 2024

The layoffs threw into question other projects in development under the EA umbrella, including a Star Wars strategy title in development at Bit Reactor that was being made in collaboration with Respawn. In a post on X, Bit Reactor confirmed that its Star Wars game is still in development.

"Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn," the official Bit Reactor account stated. "But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week's news."

No other details about the project have been revealed, but Bit Reactor is led by former XCOM and Civilization developers. A recent job listing on the Bit Reactor website calls for a game designer "well-versed in strategy and turn-based tactics games" to help create an upcoming "genre-defining game," though it's unclear if the game in question is referring to the still-unnamed Star Wars strategy title in development there. In a reply to a X user asking for when a first look at the game will be shown, Bit Reactor simply stated "As soon as it's ready."

Reports indicated that Respawn's canceled Star Wars FPS would have seen players taking on the role of a Mandalorian bounty hunter during the height of the Galactic Empire. According to IGN, developers on the project were moved to other EA games currently in development, including Apex Legends, the next Star Wars Jedi entry, and EA's upcoming Iron Man and Black Panther games.

Even if there are no details about Bit Reactor's Star Wars strategy title and Respawn's Star Wars FPS was canceled, a big-budget Star Wars game is set to release this year, but it's not coming from EA. Ubisoft's open-world Star Wars Outlaws is slated to release before year's end.