New Star Wars game coming from Ubisoft’s The Division studio

Ubisoft is making a new Star Wars game. The publisher and Disney’s Lucasfilm Games announced Wednesday that a new story-driven, open-world Star Wars adventure is currently in development at Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment, the Swedish studio known for its work on the Tom Clancy’s The Division series.

The untitled Star Wars game will “make the most of Massive’s cutting-edge technologies, including the Snowdrop engine, to deliver a groundbreaking Star Wars adventure,” Ubisoft said in a news release. Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft, called the announcement “the beginning of a long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm Games.”

Massive’s Julian Gerighty will serve as creative director on the new Star Wars project. The game will utilize the studio’s Snowdrop game engine. “This is a lore that we love, and we want to do it justice with a game and story that bring both lifelong and new fans on an immersive and outstanding journey that will stay with them for years,” Gerighty said.

Ubisoft and Lucasfilm Games did not announce details, a release window, or platforms for their new Star Wars game.

Star Wars fans are likely aware that another publisher, Electronic Arts, inked a deal with Disney in 2013 to exclusively develop games based on the property created by George Lucas. EA and Disney’s arrangement was said to last 10 years, and has so far led to multiple game releases (and multiple game cancellations). According to a separate statement released by EA on Wednesday, the publisher will continue to develop games based on the Star Wars franchise.

“We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, which will continue for years to come,” EA said in a statement to Polygon. “Our talented teams have created some of the most successful games in the history of the Star Wars franchise, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars: Battlefront, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and Star Wars: Squadrons. We love Star Wars and look forward to creating more exciting experiences for players to enjoy.”

On the official Star Wars website, Lucasfilm said that EA will “play a big role in the future of Star Wars gaming.”

“We’re really proud of the games we have created with EA,” Lucasfilm Games vice president Doug Reilly added. “We will continue working with them and our relationship has never been stronger. While we may not have a lot of details to share at the moment, we’ve got a number of projects underway with the talented teams at EA.”

Massive and Ubisoft already have a pre-existing relationship with a Disney-acquired property: James Cameron’s Avatar. The new Star Wars project is not expected to impact development of Massive’s Avatar game, which was announced in 2017 and does not have an announced release date. The next Avatar movie is expected to hit theaters in 2022.

On Tuesday, Lucasfilm Games announced another surprise collaboration: a new game starring Indiana Jones in development at Wolfenstein studio Machinegames. Bethesda Softworks will publish the new Indy game, which will be executive produced by Todd Howard.

Lucasfilm said Monday that the Lucasfilm Games branding would serve as “the official identity for all gaming titles from Lucasfilm, a name that encompasses the company’s rich catalog of video games and its eye toward the future.”

Update (11 a.m. EST): This story has been updated with additional comment from Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm.