With the announcement of Lucasfilm Games being created as well as Ubisoft taking on the role of creating an open-world Star Wars game, the future of the franchise seems bright. While EA has certainly turned things around with the releases of Star Wars: Squadrons, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the updates to Star Wars: Battlefront II, they’ve accomplished relatively little over their years of exclusivity. With the growth of the massively popular The Mandalorian and Disney’s clear desire to branch out from big-budget movies, it’s clear they want to explore new avenues in the gaming world as well.
This seems like a prime opportunity to revive Star Wars: 1313.
Star Wars: 1313 was one of the final unfinished projects of the now-defunct LucasArts game studio. While the game studio produced some of the less-popular Star Wars games toward the end of their life, this more mature adventure was set to turn things around. The gameplay we saw from the E3 demo trailer was gritty, violent, and most importantly devoid of the magical whimsy of Jedi shenanigans.
Of course, these days, a game about bounty hunting would probably be just as likely to feature Din Djarin as it would Boba Fett as originally intended, however, the gameplay would have to change little. The idea of chasing down bounties and bringing them back dead or alive while adventuring through the rich expanse of the Star Wars universe sounds great. Getting down into the dark underbelly of Coruscant (the 1313th level to be exact) provided the potential for a whole new style of Star Wars game.
I’ve mentioned before my desire for more Star Wars games that venture away from the binary influence of light and dark sides of the Force. Jedi tend to be the ultimate McGuffin in the franchise and it has gotten tiring seeing that path retread so many times. The idea that billions of life forms exist within this universe and we have to keep seeing them through the eyes of a handful of immensely powerful Jedi just seems stifling. Games like Republic Commando and Star Wars: Squadrons have shown how great the “Regular Joe” experience can be within Star Wars.
However, there’s no guarantee this is the path that will be taken. While the idea of a Ubisoft-designed open-world game automatically evokes thoughts of cover shooting and camp clearing, it could be about anything. Yet, I think that the spectrum of recently created games has left a void. A void that is in demand thanks to the work of people like Jon Favreau. If Disney doesn’t want to fill that void when the time is perfect, I don’t know that they ever will. Hopefully Star Wars: 1313 – or something similar – is considered for the task when Lucasfilm Games generates a new wave of games.