EA has posted a job listing indicating that an open-world Star Wars game may be in development at EA Vancouver. Originally the listing stated that the applicant would be working on “Online features for a Star Wars Open World project“, but that part of the listing was quickly removed. The listing is for a Lead Online Engineer. This leads to an abundance of speculation of endless possibilities. Could this be an MMO of some sort? A Destiny-like Star Wars game? A third Battlefront? Although it’s way too soon for Battlefront 3.
Personally, I would hope for a game set in the time of The Old Republic. Star Wars fans have been clamoring for another game set in that era ever since Knights of the Old Republic, which ironically was developed by Bioware. As EA owns Bioware, if their Vancouver team collaborated with Bioware (who is based in Canada as well), the result could make up for all of the mishaps EA has made thus far with the Star Wars franchise. EA Vancouver took over the duties of the now-closed Visceral Games, who was working on a Star Wars title that EA Vancouver was helping with regardless.
The bottom line is that this is a make or break for EA. They need to put out a top-notch Star Wars game. The quality has been severely lacking since they acquired the rights to the franchise. This game, whenever it comes out, could be a defining moment for EA as fans are souring on their handling of the Star Wars franchise. A game set in The Old Republic may be just the thing to reinvigorate the fanbase.