Drumroll... The EA Mandalorian Game Has Been Cancelled.........

Only last week we learned through leaks that Respawn Entertainment, who belong to EA, are developing a first person shooter Mandalorian game (about some Mandalorian, not THE Mandalorian). Well, yesterday it was announced by EA that said game is now cancelled as part of a general “restructuring” and some layoffs – 5% of employees will be let go. Click through for some more background details!

EA manager (symbol photo)

In defense of EA unlike Lucasfilm where Kathleen Kennedy seems to suffer from some kind of “project announcement tourettes syndrome”, where she announces things left and right only to cancel or silently sweep them under the rug later, EA or Respawn Entertainment never officially announced the Mandalorian first person shooter. We only learned about it through leaks. And it is not entirely uncommon that games in the development phase get scrapped for a variety of reasons.

Still, the timing in this case is hilarious, since we only learned about the existence of this game last week, when Insider Gaming posted their exclusive leak.

And to make it clear, this has literally nothing to do with Lucasfilm or Kathleen Kennedy, but with the gaming industry in general and EA in particular.

While the gaming industry keeps growing, revenue in 2023 was in excess of $184 billion worldwide, up 0.6% compared to the previous year, and literally dwarves the global movie and music industry, which only have a combined revenue of about $52 billion, there have been some major shake-ups in the industry with all the big players laying off people, Sony only recently announced their new round of lay-offs, and despite what you may initially assume, this has nothing to do really with bad performance, even if Sony is somewhat underwhelmed by their Playstation 5 console sales. In fact, Sony, for example, even lays off people working for the Sony studios Insomniac (Spider-Man games), Guerilla Games (Horizon Zero Dawn / Forbidden West) or Naughty Dog (Uncharted / Last of Us), all of which actually make money for Sony and have released successful games.

The reason for the layoffs is a general restructuring and a shift away from certain types of games, especially certain live service multiplayer games are under scrutiny with various projects in development getting cancelled. Naughty Dog was to make a Last of Us multiplayer game for example, which has been cancelled by Sony. In short, the dreaded (among gamers) “Games as a Service” have experienced several severe setbacks and it seems that open world (live service) games with a single player aspect have prevailed after all. EA famously announced years ago that single player games are dead. They were proven dead wrong. Some of the most succesful games in recent times were all single player. In 2023 alone Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy dominated (in addition to the mainstays like Call of Duty or EA’s football (soccer for Americans) games), the year before Elden Ring dominated everything, and even much lambasted Cyberpunk 2077 sold incredibly well, while games as a service and live service multiplayer games like Anthem, Avengers and most recently the Suicide Squad game failed miserably.

So the gaming industry is restructuring.

That is why there are layoffs even if video games make a lot of money.

In the case of EA there are additional considerations, an EA manager stated that there is an industrywide trend to open world live service games (games that continually add new content with season passes etc), and that means a linear non open world Star Wars first person shooter is maybe nothing EA wanted to make any longer. In fact, while Respawn’s Jedi Fallen Order game was super linear with small levels, Jedi Survivor added a massive semi open world hub in addition to the more linear story levels. So making a very linear shooter was probably perceived as a wrong turn now, especially in light of how so many open world single player games dominated the gaming world in recent years.

Then there’s also a shift towards more original non-licensed IPs at EA, they famously ended their cooperation with FIFA and no longer make an officially licensed football game, instead they make an unlicensed version now without the official FIFA label.

And while EA still has a Star Wars license it was reported before that they are not overly invested in it, because apparently licensing fees are (or originally were) enormous, making it hardly worth their while. So EA is trying to move away from licensed games entirely, which would in turn increase their profits, because they don’t have to pay Disney or anyone else a substantial percentage of the money earned, plus a hefty mininum guaranteee they have to pay even if they develop nothing.

And thus the untitled Mandalorian game ended up on the chopping block. Apparently EA no longer had faith that a linear shooter would do all that well in the current gaming landscape, then there’s the royalty issue, instead they will have Respawn make a third (and possibly final) Jedi game. Do not be surprised if EA abandons the Star Wars license entirely once that game is released. But Lucasfilm has ended their exclusive licensing agreement with EA anyway, making it possible for other studios to make Star Wars games. While the KOTOR remake appears to be in limbo and we have not heard anything new about the open world Quantic Dream Star Wars game, Ubisoft’s “Star Wars Outlaws” is, according to industry rumors, coming later this year, tentative release date is May or June 2024. First gameplay trailers look very promising, but of course trailers can be very misleading.

To sum it all up: while the fact the untitled Mandalorian game was cancelled is not that unusual, the timing turns it into a comedy. And before you blame “KK”… this was EA’s decision alone and has nothing to do with Lucasfilm. The only thing you may blame Disney/Lucasfilm for are delusional and exorbitant licensing fees. But chances are that new licensing agreements are somewhat more favorable towards the licensee… whereas Disney famously tightened the thumb screws mere months before the release of The Force Awakening and raised royalty rates to insane levels in expectation of a massive merchandise push, Hasbro reportedly had to pay in excess of 20% royalty rates back then. This in turn also explains why EA barely made anything with their Star Wars license and offered loot box hell holes as games instead to monetize it to the max.

But chances are that EA and even Hasbro now have much more favorable terms, after they renegotiated the license a few years ago, and with EA even losing exclusivity, when it was clear no more movies would be made for a long while and merchandise sales had crashed.

Would you have liked to play a linear non open world first person shooter Star Wars game? In my opinion it would have probably only been a niche title. I think open world with a single player campaign is the way to go, which is what Respawn with the third Jedi game, Ubisoft and Quantic Dream are developing and in the case of Ubisoft is even close to release.

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