Fresh off the announcement of a new Indiana Jones title from Bethesda, Lucasfilm Games announced that an open-world Star Wars game is in development at Ubisoft.

Image from Star Wars BATTLEFRONT 2 (2017)

An open-world game has been at the top of Star Wars fan wish lists since video game technology advanced enough to make them possible. Electronic Arts, the publisher that held the exclusive rights to develop Star Wars titles since 2013, tried and failed to make one of their own.

A prolific publisher of open-world titles, Ubisoft is a natural choice to develop one in a Star Wars setting. One of the biggest questions now is if the Star Wars game from Ubisoft will follow the well-tread “Ubisoft formula” or take a more original approach to the genre. The game is in development at Massive Entertainment, the studio behind The Division series and the long-gestating Avatar Project.

Star Wars game Ubisoft flight
Image from Star Wars BATTLEFRONT 2 (2017)

This news means that EA’s exclusive rights to Star Wars are coming to an end. The massive game publisher has had a bumpy road with the license, which included a string of cancellations and the Star Wars Battlefront 2 microtransactions controversy. EA took steps to turn things around, but Disney seems happy to give developers outside of Electronic Arts access to the Lucasfilm IP. The move certainly opens up possibilities for the franchise now that any studio is a potential developer for the next Star Wars game.