Veteran game developer, Amy Hennig, is attached to creating a new Star Wars game . StarWars.com announced that Skydance New Media ( video game development studio/subsidiary founded by Skydance in November 2019) is working in collaboration with LucasFilm Games on a new Star Wars project. Hennig, president and head of the studio, shared her enthusiasm about working on a new Star Wars project:
“I’ve often described how seeing Star Wars in 1977 essentially rewired my 12-year-old brain, shaping my creative life and future indelibly,” said Hennig, president, Skydance New Media. “I’m elated to be working with Lucasfilm Games again to tell interactive stories in this galaxy that I love.”- Hennig to StarWars.com
The operative word here being “again”, as Hennig has worked on a Star Wars game before (codenamed Project Ragtag) that ultimately ended up getting scrapped. Now she is back, at a different studio, getting a second chance!
Amy Hennig back in 2018. Image from Wikipedia.
For the uninitiated, Amy Hennig is one of a few female developers whose name carries weight in the heavily-male dominated videogame industry. She has been working in games since the late 1980s and has gone on to play a role in the creation of several iconic games. In the 90s she worked at Silicon Knights as a writer and director on the Legacy of Kain series. Later she migrated to Naughty Dog as a creative director. With Naughty Dog she played an influential role on the Jak and Daxter series and eventually the Uncharted games. After finishing work on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End she left Naughty Dog to join Visceral Games and begin work on the ill-fated Project Ragtag.
New Star Wars Project(s)
All that we know about this new project is that is “a narrative-driven, action-adventure game featuring an original story in the Star Wars galaxy”. Given Hennig’s niche being action-adventure games, this is one game where the IP won’t be doing all the heavy-lifting. What I find interesting is how LucasFilm games is churning out so many projects now that EA’s exclusivity deal is almost over (2023). This is now the 8th project announced in recent memory. If you haven’t been keeping count they are:
- Star Wars: Hunters being developed by Zynga
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2 being developed by Respawn Entertainment
- Untitled SW fps game by Respawn Entertainment.
- Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (Remake) being developed by Aspyr Media
- Untitled open-world SW game by Ubisoft
- Star Wars Eclipse by Quantic Dream
- Untitled SW strategy game being developed by Bit Reactor in conjunction with Respawn Entertainment
- Untitled SW action-adventure game by Skydance
That is quite a handful of games in the pipeline. And you have to imagine that there are more that we are unaware of as of now.
Image from the SW Eclipse game trailer.
Closing Thoughts
My fellow gamers, we have a lot to look forward to in the next few years. Lucasfilm may not be churning out a lot of films right now, but the games are on the horizon. My most anticipated game is still the KOTOR remake, the original is very special to me! Share with us what Star Wars title is your most anticipated in the comment section. Be sure to subscribe the GeekNewsNow for all things geeky and gaming. Want more about the galaxy far, far away? Check out our podcast/show, The Cantina Happy Hour. Stay geeky out there!
