Stig Asmussen, the director behind Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its recent sequel has left publisher Electronic Arts for unspecified reasons.
10 Creatures We Wanna Ride In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a huge hit, selling millions of copies and garnering rave reviews from critics and fans. Earlier this year, the game’s sequel, Jedi: Survivor, debuted to equally positive reviews and sales. Both games were seen by many as a huge improvement over EA’s previous Star Wars output, which included multiplayer shooters and canceled projects. And now, the man who helped lead development on the Jedi games is no longer with Respawn or the studio’s parent company EA.
When asked about the departure, EA provided Kotaku with this statement:
After careful thought and consideration, Stig Asmussen has decided to leave Respawn to pursue other adventures, and we wish him the best of luck. Veteran Respawn leaders will be stepping up to guide the team as they continue their work on Star WarsJedi: Survivor.
The specific reason for Asmussen’s departure is not yet known. His exit from Respawn, at least from the outside, does seem surprising, as the Jedi games have been considered huge successes for EA and its stewardship of Star Wars. His sudden exit seems even more surprising when you consider that, according to Asmussen, the Jedi series of games was always meant to be a trilogy, implying a third game is coming in the future.
In March, a month before the launch of Jedi: Survivor,Asmussen told IGNthat he “always wanted to see [the Jedi saga] as a trilogy.” He explained further that the team had “ideas of what we could do beyond [Jedi: Survivor].”
While it’s very likely EA and Respawn will develop a third game in the popular franchise, completing the presumably planned trilogy, it will seemingly be without the director who helped make the first two chapters memorable.
Respawn went on to develop Apex Legends, a game set in the Titanfall universe only—crucially—without the Titans, and which has been printing money for years. They’ve also made the new Star Wars Jedi games, which have been a successful return to form for a franchise long stuck in licensed adaptation hell.
They’ve been very busy with those, and given their success likely will be for the foreseeable future. You also need to know that, as critically successful as Titanfall 2 was, the game—released alongside a bunch of other blockbuster shooters, including EA’s own Battlefield 1—was seen by publisher Electronic Arts as an enormous commercial failure.
So the likelihood that we ever get a Titanfall 3, especially a Titanfall 3 in the same vein as Titanfall 2, are slim! Actually that’s being generous. The likelihood that Respawn, as busy as they are, will make a Titanfall 3 with backing from EA, a publisher who will throw an under-performing franchise in the trash without a second’s hesitation, is pretty much zero.
This week, we’re back in said ringer. Speaking with Barron’s(thanks, PC Gamer), mostly about their new Star Wars game, Respawn boss Vince Zampella was asked about the possibility of there ever being a Titanfall 3, to which he replied
I hate to say yes, then people latch onto that, and then skewer you when it doesn’t come.
But I would love to see it happen is the real answer.
My man, you are one of the handful of people on the planet with the power to make this happen! You don’t need to pine about it in a interview, go call some meetings!
I kid, of course, there are a multitude of planning, resource-related and financial reasons we haven’t seen a Titanfall 3, but refreshingly—and in the only piece of good news to be had here today—that’s partly down to the fact that were such a thing to ever happen, Respawn want to do right by the game, rather than just drop Titanfall Tour on iOS or something.
“It has to be the right thing”, Zampella says. “It’s such a beloved franchise for the fans and also for us. If it is not the right moment in time, the right idea, then it just doesn’t make sense.”
Maybe that time will be soon. Maybe it’ll be never! All I know is that until we reach that right moment in time”, every time I have to type “Titanfall 3″ and not follow it up with “Announced” is going to kill me.
‘Tis truly a bountiful season for Star Wars fans! We’ve got the Star Wars live-action television series from Disney+ with season three of The Mandalorian coming soon after Andor’s recent season 1 ending. Their animated docket is also full, with a new season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch coming on the heels of this fall’s Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi animated anthology series. Star Wars has also had great success with their foray into video games, especially with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. So what’s going on with its sequel, Jedi: Survivor, and did we just find out its release date via Steam?
As fans might recall, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place five years after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The game follows a former padawan, Cal Kestis, who managed to survive Order 66 and is now being hunted by two Imperial Inquisitors (Second Sister and Ninth Sister) and Darth Vader. He is tasked with tracking down a Holocron that holds the names of force-sensitive children across the galaxy before the Inquisitors can get their hands on it. By the end of the game, Kestis has rescued the Holocron, and his partner, Cere (a former Jedi Knight), has reconciled with her former padawan, Trilla … a.k.a. Second Sister. Unfortunately though, Vader kills Trilla for failing to stop Cere and Kestis. Cal decides to destroy the Holocron in an effort to keep the force-sensitive children on its list safe.
When will Star Wars Jedi: Survivor be released?
(Image: EA/Respawn)
New rumors rocked the gaming world and Fallen Order fans in early December 2022, when screenshots from the game were supposedly leaked. The screenshots reveal an alleged release date of March 15, 2023. Other sites also reported rumors that the game would be releasing March 16, 2023, based on information on the game’s Steam page that has since been removed. The Jedi: Survivor site has deleted any information regarding the release, so we can only speculate on whether or not the rumors of a mid-March release date are true. After all, it was also rumored that the release date would be officially announced during the 2022 Game Awards on Thursday, December 8!
And the rumor about the release date being revealed during the Game Awards turned out to be correct! Stars Wars Jedi: Survivor dropped the official reveal trailer during the ceremony! Along with the trailer was the official release date: March 17, 2023! So get your lightsabers ready because March is only a few months away!
What else do we know about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?
Rumors about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor have been circulating ever since EA announced not one but three new Star Wars games: a first-person shooter, a strategy game, and a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. One rumor (from Bespin Bulletin) that has been proven correct was the announcement of Fallen Order‘s sequel at Star Wars Celebration 2022. The new sequel, titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was announced during the event’s festivities along with a new teaser trailer.
The new game will continue to follow the young Jedi Cal Kestis as he tries to escape the Empire. The new trailer was light on plot, but we gleaned some important details. Cal seems to have lost not only the found family of allies that he gained during Fallen Order, but it seems his lightsaber has fallen into the hands of the Inquisitors. Speaking of which, it appears that the Grand Inquisitor is going to be coming after Cal directly.
Along with the teaser trailer, it was announced that the game will be releasing officially in 2023. However, a specific date was not given. The game will be coming to next-gen consoles like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, but the rumors circulating that the game will only be released on those platforms was neither confirmed nor denied. It is quite possible that players who still use PS4 and Xbox One will be out of luck if they want to play Jedi: Survivor. This is a frustrating possibility for many gamers, considering that there is still a shortage of current-gen consoles on the market, and PS5s are still incredibly hard to come by.
