Author: Matt "ObiWaN" Hansen

Mando and Grogu Just Made Starfighter’s Job Harder

Star Wars Starfighter and The Mandalorian and Grogu comparison header image about pressure on the next Star Wars movie

The Mandalorian and Grogu has done its job. Star Wars is back in theaters, the opening weekend was strong, and Grogu has once again proven that he may be less a character and more a tiny green economic stabilizer with ears. But that success also makes the next Star Wars movie more interesting. Because if The Mandalorian and Grogu was the safe theatrical restart, Star Wars: Starfighter is shaping up to be the real test. The Safe Bet Worked The numbers are good. The Mandalorian and Grogu opened with roughly $165 million worldwide, according to Reuters, giving Lucasfilm exactly what it needed after years away from cinemas: proof that Star Wars can still pull people into theaters. But it did so with a lot of help. Din Djarin and Grogu are familiar. They have years of Disney+ momentum behind them. They are family-friendly, toy-friendly, meme-friendly, and emotionally simple in the…

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Battlefront II’s Battle Point Event Is Live, So Prepare for Chaos

Star Wars Battlefront II Battle Point Event is live header image with stormtroopers

Star Wars Battlefront II has pushed the big red chaos button again. The Battle Point Event is live, which means reinforcements cost less, more of them can flood the battlefield at once, and your average match now has a much higher chance of looking like a Clone Wars episode where the director lost control of the extras. Lower costs. More special units. Busier objectives. Louder everything. For a game that officially ended live-service support years ago, Battlefront II still has a funny habit of reminding everyone that it can absolutely still start a small war on your Friday. Cheaper Reinforcements, Messier Matches The current SWBF2 event calendar lists the Friday Battle Point Event as lowering Battle Point costs for reinforcements and increasing how many can be active at the same time. That sounds like a small rules tweak until you actually load into a match. Suddenly there are more clone…

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Battlefront II’s Siege of Kamino Update Still Feels Like a Turning Point

Star Wars Battlefront II Siege of Kamino update turns 7 promotional header image

Seven years ago, Star Wars Battlefront II got one of those updates that quietly says a lot about where the game was heading. The Siege of Kamino Update did not add a giant new era, a headline-grabbing hero, or a cinematic trailer that made everyone lose their minds for three days. Instead, it did something more important for the actual people still playing: it made the game feel more complete, more social, and more tuned to what the community had been asking for. Released in May 2019, the update brought Kamino – Cloning Facility to Capital Supremacy, added the in-game Voice Lines Wheel for heroes, raised the level cap for all units to 1000, and adjusted Heroes vs. Villains after removing the old target system. That may sound like patch-note soup. It was not. It was one of the updates that helped turn Battlefront II from a game people argued…

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The Star Wars Eclipse Waiting Game Just Got More Complicated

Spaceship flying near planets and asteroid field

There are red flags around Star Wars Eclipse now. Not the fun Sith kind. The labour-union, restructuring, “what exactly is happening inside this studio?” kind. Just one day after Quantic Dream reassured fans that Star Wars Eclipse is still moving forward, the situation around the studio has become much messier. The French video game workers’ union STJV has strongly criticized Quantic Dream following the cancellation of Spellcasters Chronicles, claiming that the studio’s restructuring could put 95 jobs at risk and accusing management of mishandling both the cancelled project and the wider production situation. That does not mean Star Wars Eclipse is cancelled. It does mean the calm official message now has a lot more noise behind it. The Official Line Is Still: Eclipse Continues Let’s start with the important part: Quantic Dream says Star Wars Eclipse is not affected. After announcing that Spellcasters Chronicles would be shut down, the studio…

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Vader Immortal Episode I Made Darth Vader Feel Too Close for Comfort

Darth Vader in Star Wars Vader Immortal with anniversary text marking seven years since the VR game launched.

Seven years ago today, Star Wars put Darth Vader in your personal space. Released on May 21, 2019, Vader Immortal: Episode I launched alongside the Oculus Quest and gave Star Wars gaming one of its strangest experiments: a canon VR story built less around “beating” Darth Vader and more around surviving the deeply unpleasant experience of standing near him. That sounds like a small thing. It was not. Because in VR, Vader is not just a character on a screen. He is tall. He is close. He is breathing. And suddenly, all those jokes about Imperial workplace culture feel much less funny when the office manager is eight feet of black armor and unresolved trauma. A Star Wars Story Built for Presence Developed by ILMxLAB, Vader Immortal was structured as a three-part VR adventure set on Mustafar. Episode I introduced players as a smuggler pulled into Vader’s orbit, with ancient…

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Star Wars Eclipse Survives Quantic Dream’s Latest Cancellation

Star Wars Eclipse: Revolutionizing Star Wars Gaming with Unprecedented Narrative Freedom

Star Wars Eclipse has not vanished into the Unknown Regions. Not yet, anyway. Quantic Dream has cancelled development on its multiplayer project Spellcasters Chronicles, but the studio says its long-silent High Republic Star Wars game is not affected. According to reports from GameSpot and Insider Gaming, Quantic Dream told players that Star Wars Eclipse “continues as planned,” even as the studio shuts down its other project. That is good news. It is also the kind of good news that Star Wars gaming fans should probably receive with one hand on the emergency brake. Eclipse Is Still Officially Alive The important part is simple: Quantic Dream is saying Star Wars Eclipse is still moving forward. That matters because the game has become one of the strangest open tabs in modern Star Wars gaming. Announced back in 2021 with a gorgeous cinematic trailer, Eclipse promised a branching narrative action-adventure set during the…

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Fate of the Old Republic Director Says AI Is “Creatively Soulless”

Casey Hudson alongside the Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic logo

Casey Hudson is building a new Old Republic RPG, but apparently he is not asking a chatbot to write the soul of it. The Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic director has made it clear that Arcanaut Studios is not using AI to build its upcoming Star Wars RPG. In comments first reported from Bloomberg and picked up by Windows Central, Hudson said he is “really unimpressed” with AI and called it “creatively soulless.” That is a sharp line in a games industry increasingly obsessed with automation, cost-cutting, and pretending the phrase “AI pipeline efficiency” does not sound like something a villain says before building a moon-sized laser. Human-Made RPGs Still Matter Hudson’s stance matters because Fate of the Old Republic is not just any licensed game. It is being positioned as a spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic, one of the most beloved narrative RPGs ever…

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How The Phantom Menace Launched the Weirdest Era of Star Wars Games

High-energy Star Wars Episode I gaming collage with podracing, Jedi action, battle droids, Naboo visuals, and headline text about The Phantom Menace launching the weirdest era of Star Wars games.

On May 19, 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace arrived in theaters and detonated like a merchandised thermal bomb. The film itself is still debated, memed, defended, roasted, rewatched, and quoted with suspicious enthusiasm. But for Star Wars gaming, The Phantom Menace did something far more important than introduce midi-chlorians and senate procedure to a confused generation. It opened the floodgates. The prequel era gave LucasArts a new toybox: podracers, Naboo starfighters, battle droids, Gungan battlefields, Sith assassins, Republic cruisers, bounty hunters, clone armies, Jedi starfighters, and planets that did not look like the same three Original Trilogy backdrops wearing different hats. And the games got weird. Gloriously weird. The Movie Was Only the Beginning The gaming push started immediately. Star Wars: Episode I – Racer launched for Nintendo 64 and Windows right as the film hit theaters, turning the podrace into one of the fastest and…

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Leaked KOTOR Remake Cinematic Shows the Version We Never Got

Work-in-progress KOTOR Remake cinematic image with headline text about a leaked cinematic from the cancelled Aspyr version.

The Knights of the Old Republic remake has become one of those Star Wars projects that feels half real, half ghost story. Now the ghost just moved again. A newly surfaced cinematic, reported by MP1st, reportedly shows an opening sequence from the cancelled Aspyr version of the KOTOR Remake. That is the key detail, and it needs to stay in bright red letters: this is not a confirmed look at the current Saber-led version of the remake. It is a look at the version that did not survive. That is what makes it interesting. This Is Not the KOTOR Remake We Are Waiting For If you only skim the headline, it is easy to assume this is a fresh reveal from the live project. It is not. The reported cinematic comes from the earlier Aspyr iteration of the remake — the one that ran into trouble before development was moved…

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On This Day: Star Wars Episode I: Racer Made Podracing Feel Impossible Fast

Before Star Wars racing became nostalgic, it was just fast enough to make your childhood reflexes file a formal complaint. On May 18, 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – Racer launched in North America for Nintendo 64 and Windows PC, arriving right alongside the Phantom Menace hype machine. It took one of the most kinetic sequences in the movie — the Boonta Eve Classic podrace — and turned it into a full racing game that somehow felt faster than the film itself. That was the magic trick. A lot of movie tie-in games in the late ‘90s felt like merchandise with a health bar. Episode I: Racer felt like LucasArts had looked at the podrace scene and said: “What if this was the whole game, but louder, faster, and more likely to make your palms sweat?” Podracing Finally Had Its Game The concept was wonderfully simple: choose a podracer, survive…

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On This Day: Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 Put Gaming Front and Center

Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 panel room with headline text about the event putting Star Wars gaming front and center.

There was a moment in 2016 when Star Wars gaming looked like it was absolutely everywhere. On May 17, 2016, StarWars.com announced that Star Wars video games would be coming to Star Wars Celebration Europe 2016 in London — and not as a tiny side booth hidden somewhere near the emergency exit. The official announcement promised Star Wars Battlefront, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Commander, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Star Wars: Force Collection at the event. StarWars.com even called it the highest volume of gaming content in Celebration history. Ten years later, that line hits a little differently. A Very 2016 Star Wars Gaming Snapshot The lineup is almost a time capsule. Star Wars Battlefront was still the big modern console shooter, carrying EA’s first major post-Disney Star Wars gaming push. LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was turning the…

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EA Killed a KOTOR-Style SWTOR Reboot That Lucasfilm Had Already Backed

James Ohlen speaking on stage with headline text about EA killing a KOTOR-style SWTOR reboot backed by Lucasfilm.

There was almost another great lost Star Wars game. Not a rumor. Not fan fiction. Not one of those “what if” forum ghosts that refuse to die. Former Knights of the Old Republic lead designer and Star Wars: The Old Republic director James Ohlen has revealed that he once pitched a full SWTOR reboot called Star Wars: The New Republic — and it had serious support before EA’s board killed it. That is the kind of sentence that lands like a thermal detonator if you care about BioWare-era Star Wars. The SWTOR Reset That Almost Happened In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Ohlen said that around 2015 he spent roughly six months building a pitch for a total relaunch of The Old Republic. The project was called Star Wars: The New Republic. And this was not some half-baked napkin idea. Ohlen said he put together a design document, presentations,…

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Hidden Empire: The Free Star Wars Browser Strategy Game More Fans Should Try

Hidden Empire Galaxy Adventures logo over a cinematic Star Wars-style galactic strategy scene with fleets, planets, and tactical command graphics.

Some Star Wars games chase cinematic spectacle. Others ask you to download 120GB, update three launchers, and sacrifice a weekend to the patch gods. Then there is Hidden Empire – Galaxy Adventures, a fan-made browser strategy game that simply says: pick a side, build your planets, command your forces, and see how long your galactic ambitions survive contact with other players. And honestly? That sounds extremely Star Wars. You can check it out on the official site here: Hidden Empire – Galaxy Adventures A Fan-Made Strategy Game With Real Galactic Scale Hidden Empire – Galaxy Adventures is a strategy-based browser game where players take on the role of either a Republic commander or a Separatist warlord, building economic and military infrastructure across multiple planets while competing or cooperating with hundreds of other players in the same galaxy. The official site describes the game as a mix of planetary development, military…

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On This Day: Star Wars Outlaws Let Hondo Ohnaka Steal the Show

Star Wars Outlaws A Pirate’s Fortune header image with Kay Vess, Nix, Hondo Ohnaka, starfighters, and headline text about Hondo stealing the show.

One year ago today, Star Wars Outlaws remembered an important truth: every underworld story gets better the moment Hondo Ohnaka walks in and starts smiling like a crime is already happening. Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune released on May 15, 2025, as the game’s second story pack, bringing Kay Vess and Nix into a new pirate-flavored adventure with the galaxy’s most charmingly untrustworthy Weequay. Steam lists the DLC with a May 15, 2025 release date, while Ubisoft described it as a new story expansion centered on Hondo, hidden treasure, and the dangerous Khepi system. (Steam, Ubisoft) Hondo Was Built for Outlaws The base game already had the right ingredients: syndicates, smuggling, betrayal, blaster trouble, and Kay Vess trying very hard to survive people with better funding and worse morals. Then A Pirate’s Fortune added Hondo Ohnaka, which is basically Star Wars turning the scoundrel dial until it breaks. According…

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Fortnite’s Star Wars Push Has a Battlefront Problem

Fortnite Star Wars event with Anakin Skywalker and Rey holding weapons, headline "Fortnite’s Star Wars Push Has a Battlefront Problem"

Fortnite has become one of the strangest places to experience Star Wars in 2026. You can fight in themed battles, escape Darth Vader, build droids, run through Star Wars islands, unlock new cosmetics, wait for The Mandalorian and Grogu footage, and now even mess around with Star Wars content inside LEGO Fortnite Odyssey. On paper, that sounds like a billion-credit win. But the actual conversation around Fortnite’s latest Star Wars push has been more complicated. The official StarWars.com Fortnite overview lays out just how big the campaign is, with Galactic Siege, Escape Vader, Droid Tycoon, LEGO Fortnite Odyssey content, weekly quests, and a Mandalorian and Grogu Watch Party Island all part of the rollout. That is a lot of Star Wars. The question is whether it is the kind of Star Wars gaming players actually want. Star Wars Content Is Not the Same as a Star Wars Game Fortnite is…

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On This Day: Jedi Starfighter Still Deserves More Love

Header image for Star Wars Jedi Starfighter showing the game’s box art and text marking its 2002 release anniversary

Before every Star Wars game needed a galaxy map, three progression systems, and a roadmap with seasonal feelings, LucasArts could casually drop a starfighter combat game and let players blast through the Clone Wars from a cockpit. That is basically the charm of Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, which launched for Xbox around this week in May 2002, with GameFAQs listing the Xbox release date as May 13, 2002, while the current Xbox store lists it under May 14. Either way, this is very much a “happy anniversary, you slightly forgotten prequel-era space shooter” moment. And honestly? It deserves one. A Prequel-Era Flight Game With Actual Personality Released during the Attack of the Clones buildup, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter put players into the cockpit of Adi Gallia’s Jedi starfighter while also bringing back Nym, the pirate from Star Wars: Starfighter. That combination gave the game a fun identity. It was not…

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Star Wars Outlaws Gets Its Biggest Second Chance Yet on PlayStation Plus

Star Wars Outlaws header image showing Kay Vess and Nix on Toshara with title text about the game getting a second chance on PlayStation Plus.

Star Wars Outlaws is getting another shot at the spotlight — and this one may be bigger than its recent Steam comeback. Sony has confirmed that Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s open-world Star Wars adventure is joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on May 19 for PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members. The announcement came through the official PlayStation Plus Game Catalog for May lineup, where Outlaws appears alongside Red Dead Redemption 2, Bramble: The Mountain King, The Thaumaturge and more. That is not a tiny placement. That is a giant “go on, give it another try” button sitting in front of millions of PlayStation subscribers. Outlaws Is Suddenly Harder to Ignore This arrives at a very interesting moment for Star Wars Outlaws. The game has already been showing fresh movement on PC, with our recent coverage of Star Wars Outlaws trending on Steam pointing to renewed interest after discounts, patches,…

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Star Wars Monopoly Is Somehow Becoming a Tactical Team Game

Star Wars heroes and villains lightsaber duel

Nobody asked for Battlefront 3 to arrive wearing a top hat and collecting rent, but here we are. Monopoly: Star Wars Heroes vs. Villains is coming on June 11, 2026, and the strangest thing about it is not that Star Wars has once again found its way onto a Monopoly board. That has happened before. The strange thing is that this new digital version actually sounds like Ubisoft and Behaviour Interactive are trying to turn family game night into a casual tactical showdown. According to the official Ubisoft page, the game adds a “dynamic, team-based twist” to Monopoly, with players choosing Star Wars heroes and villains, using unique powers, and fighting for control of the galaxy. That is a sentence that should not work. Somehow, it almost does. Play as a Team, Betray as a Family The big hook is team play. Ubisoft says the game supports 2v2 and 3v3…

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Fate of the Old Republic Won’t Be a 200-Hour Monster

Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic logo reveal featuring gold title text on a black background.

The next big Old Republic game may not be designed to eat your entire adult life. Frankly, that already sounds a little heroic. In a new Bloomberg report about the company backing Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, director Casey Hudson makes one thing very clear: this is not being built as another endless RPG treadmill with a lightsaber taped to the front. His key line? “Bigger isn’t necessarily better.” That is a small sentence with a lot of weight behind it. In an RPG landscape where “value” is often measured in hundreds of hours, endless side quests, and maps covered in icons, Hudson’s approach sounds almost rebellious: make a Star Wars RPG people can actually finish — and then give them a reason to come back. A Star Wars RPG You Might Actually Finish The Bloomberg piece focuses on former NetEase executive Simon Zhu, whose new GreaterThan Group…

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Star Wars Zero Company Rating Hints the Empire Is Coming Early

Star Wars Zero Company tactical squad artwork with headline about the game’s age rating and early Empire story hints.

Star Wars Zero Company still does not have an official release date, but the tactical war drums just got noticeably louder. A new listing from Australian Classification has rated the upcoming single-player tactics game M for “mature themes and violence,” with a classification date of April 8, 2026. That alone is interesting. Age ratings often show up once a game is far enough along for platform holders and ratings boards to start doing their less glamorous, paperwork-heavy part of the job. But the real hook is buried in the description: the game’s story reportedly “spans from the Clone Wars era into the early Galactic Empire.” That is a very spicy little sentence. The Clone Wars May Not Be the Whole Story Until now, the official pitch for Star Wars Zero Company has focused on the twilight of the Clone Wars. Players take control of Hawks, a former Republic officer leading…

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Battlefront II’s Battle Point Event Is Live — Reinforcements Are Cheap Today

Battlefront II Battle Point Event header image showing a desert battlefield with wreckage and title text about cheap reinforcements.

Star Wars Battlefront II is having another very convenient “wait, why is everyone suddenly a commando?” day. The game’s Battle Point Event: Reinforcements is live, lowering the cost of reinforcements in assault modes and allowing more special units onto the battlefield at once. According to the official EA Community Events Calendar, the Friday Battle Point Event reduces reinforcement costs and increases the number of reinforcements available in Galactic Assault, Capital Supremacy, Extraction, and Strike. So yes, if your match suddenly feels like half the enemy team has evolved into Death Troopers, ARC Troopers, Commandos, B2s, or some other heavily armed problem, that is probably why. Cheap Reinforcements Means Louder Matches The Battle Point system is one of the things that gives Battlefront II its particular rhythm. Regular troopers earn points by playing objectives, getting eliminations, supporting teammates, and generally trying not to become background scenery. Those points can then be…

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Star Wars Outlaws Is Suddenly Trending on Steam Again

Star Wars Outlaws header image featuring Kay Vess aiming a blaster with title text reading Tops Steam Trending List.

Star Wars Outlaws is having one of those “wait, people are actually coming back?” moments. According to the latest Steam tracking chatter, Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment’s open-world Star Wars adventure has climbed high on Steam’s trending activity, with Bespin Bulletin reporting that the game was sitting as the 4th most trending title on Steam with a 125.7% 24-hour change on May 6. It was also listed around the 43rd best-selling game on the platform at the time. Not bad for a game that launched into one of the messier Star Wars gaming discourse storms in recent memory. The Star Wars Day Effect Is Real The timing is not exactly mysterious. May the 4th usually drags every Star Wars game out of hyperspace, slaps a discount on it, and politely asks everyone whether they really need food this week. In Outlaws’ case, that discount appears to be doing actual work. SteamDB…

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Battlefront II Is Back in the PS4 Download Charts — and the Player Surge Is Real

Star Wars Battlefront II header image featuring a helmeted trooper with text reading Battlefront II Back in the Charts, Player Surge Continues.

Star Wars Battlefront II continues to behave like a game that absolutely refuses to stay in the archive. According to PlayStation’s official April 2026 PlayStation Store download charts, Star Wars Battlefront II was the 8th most downloaded PS4 game in the US/Canada and the 10th most downloaded PS4 game in Europe last month. That would be notable for any older multiplayer shooter. For Battlefront II, it is even louder because the game has not had a major official content update since EA and DICE wrapped up the live content roadmap with The Battle on Scarif back in 2020. EA’s own Battlefront page still points to the April 2020 update as the moment the game’s “vision” was completed after more than two years of free content. In other words: no new official expansion. No new season. No big publisher comeback campaign. Just players coming back anyway. The Numbers Are Moving Again…

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SWG Restoration Drops “Revenge of the Fifth” Hotfix as Its Anniversary Nears

SWG Restoration header image showing a Star Wars Galaxies-style desert battle with a giant creature, player characters, and Revenge of the Fifth hotfix title text.

Star Wars Day is over. Revenge of the Fifth has arrived. And over in the Star Wars Galaxies corner of the galaxy, SWG Restoration is still doing exactly what makes these private-server projects so fascinating: quietly keeping an old MMO alive with new fixes, systems, and community momentum. The team has posted Hotfix 1.4.0.4 — Revenge of the Fifth, a fresh patch arriving as Restoration heads toward its fifth anniversary later this month. The official SWG Restoration hotfix post frames the update around both maintenance and celebration, with anniversary preparation now clearly on the radar. The Galactic Civil War Keeps Getting Tuned One of the more interesting notes in the hotfix concerns watchtowers and PvP base discovery. The patch listing notes that watchtowers can now grant discovery missions for finding PvP bases, with clearer messaging to indicate when a discovered target is a PvP base. That might sound tiny if…

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