Lucasfilm Promises More Surprise Star Wars Games After Zero Company & Galactic Racer

Did you ever think we'd get a Star Wars turn-based tactics game or an arcade racer from the Burnout team? Well, we did this year, and Lucasfilm says that's just the beginning.

In a chat with The Game Business Show, Lucasfilm Games executive Douglas Reilly explained that the company has loosened the reins on the Star Wars franchise. "We're more flexible about, like, who we're willing to take pitches from and good ideas can come from a lot of different places," he said. That shift has already paid off with Star Wars: Zero Company, a turn-based tactics game that force pushes the XCOM formula into a galaxy far, far away, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, an arcade racer from some of the developers behind Burnout. Both courted rave reviews.

For years, Disney had a 10-year deal with EA that gave the publisher exclusive rights to make Star Wars video games. That deal expired in 2023, opening the door for smaller studios to pitch their own takes on the beloved universe. "You don't have to necessarily be a top five publisher to make a great Star Wars game," Reilly added. But he also stressed that quality remains paramount: "We have a high quality bar and we want to make sure they're excellent experiences and that means typically you work with more experienced teams than, you know, new teams who have no track record of making great things."

So what's next? Reilly teased that Lucasfilm is "exploring all kinds of things [with] large and small partners that I think are going to continue to surprise folks who are like, 'Oh, they're doing a thing with them. That might be interesting to see how that turns out.'" That's a tantalizing hint that more unexpected collaborations are in the works.

Currently, we know EA's Respawn is developing a third game in the Star Wars Jedi franchise. Quantic Dream is still apparently working on Star Wars Eclipse, though that project hit a big hurdle earlier this summer as developers planned to strike. Beyond that, the future is wide open.

It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan who plays games. With Lucasfilm embracing fresh ideas from a wider range of studios, we could be in for some truly wild rides. What kind of Star Wars game would you love to see next? Let us know in the comments!