EA has cancelled an upcoming Star Wars FPS from Respawn while laying off 5% of its staff.
The FPS title was being helmed by former LucasArts veteran and Medal of Honor co-creator Peter Hirschmann and was speculated to be centred around Mandalorians.
In an update from Laura Miele, the President of EA Entertainment and Technology, she explained that after assessing Respawn’s portfolio, EA has confirmed that players are most excited about the Jedi games and owned titles.
“Knowing this, we have decided to pivot away from early development on a Star Wars FPS Action game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our owned brands while providing support for existing games,” she said.
“It’s always hard to walk away from a project, and this decision is not a reflection of the team’s talent, tenacity, or passion they have for the game.”
In the update, Miele also noted that Battlefield game director Marcus Lehto has made a personal choice to leave Battlefield Studios and that, as a part of the change in leadership, Ridgeline will be winding down as a standalone studio in Seattle.
Some of the Ridgeline team members will be moving over to other teams across DICE, Ripple, and Criterion as they build the next Battlefield experience.
These cancellations and layoffs add to the growing contraction of the gaming industry and come in tandem with Sony’s announcement of laying off 900 of its gaming employees – bringing the total job cuts this year to more than 6,000 for gaming.
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