Respawn's Star Wars FPS has been cancelled, Battlefield campaign studio Ridgeline Games is being closed

News
By published

Electronic Arts' planned layoff of 5% of its workforce is taking an immediate toll.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Shortly after Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson announced plans to cut 5% of the studio's workforce, EA's entertainment and technology president Laura Miele said the company has also decided to cancel a Star Wars FPS that was in development at Respawn and close the studio that was working on the singleplayer campaign for the next Battlefield game.

The project was one of three Star Wars games in the works at Respawn that were announced in early 2022, a year after EA committed to sticking with the franchise despite the loss of its exclusivity deal with Disney. But now it's decided to change direction.

"As we've looked at Respawn's portfolio over the last few months, what's clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn's rich library of owned brands," Miele said. "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."

It's a genuinely surprising move, given the massive recognition factor of the brand: Apex Legends is big, but Star Wars is, well, Star Wars. 

While Respawn's Star Wars adventure has come to a premature end, Miele said the next Battlefield game is "making meaningful progress." Following the departure of Marcus Lehto, however, development of the singleplayer campaign he was heading up at Ridgeline Games has now been moved to Criterion. Ridgeline, which was just opened in 2022, will be closed.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.