EA cancels Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars shooter

Electronic Arts has confirmed the cancellation of Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars first-person shooter and the closure of Ridgeline Games.

The North American company announced hours ago a restructuring that would result in the layoff of five percent of its employees, and now a message from Laura Miele, president of EA Entertainment and Technology, confirms even more collateral damage.

In an email to EA teams, Miele explained that “as we’ve explored Respawn’s catalog over the past few months, it has become clear that the games that our players care most about are Jedi and Respawn’s library of in-house brands. Knowing this, we have decided to step back from developing the Star Wars first-person shooter game to focus our efforts on new projects based on our brands, as well as support existing games.”

“It’s always difficult to leave a project behind, and this decision does not reflect the team’s talent, tenacity or passion for the game.”

Additionally, it was also announced that “Marcus Lehto recently made a personal decision to leave the project,” referring to the Battlefield franchise. “To ensure that their work will not be interrupted, we immediately appointed Criterion management to oversee the player’s work.”

“As part of this change, we will be closing Ridgeline as an independent studio in Seattle, and part of the team will be joining Ripple Effect. They will continue to work with the teams at DICE, Ripple and Criterion to create the next Battlefield experience.”

What fate awaits the employees who do not join Ripple Effect is not specified, although all indications are that they will be among the 670 employees who will lose their jobs as part of the new restructuring process at the North American company.