In a move that is quite surprising, for a few reasons, but Lucasfilm Games have announced that a new Star Wars game is coming, thanks to partnering up with Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment.

“We’re really excited about an opportunity to work with the team at Massive, led by David Polfeldt and the creative director, Julian Gerighty. We’ve spent almost a year now, working to get to know them and what they want to bring to the table,” Lucasfilm Games VP Douglas Reilly says. “I’m a huge fan of them, personally. I think we’re really excited about where that project is going, because they have a unique vision for the story and the game they want to deliver.”

“The Star Wars galaxy is an amazing source of motivation for our teams to innovate and push the boundaries of our medium. Building new worlds, characters and stories that will become lasting parts of the Star Wars lore is an incredible opportunity for us, and we are excited to have our Ubisoft Massive studio working closely with Lucasfilm Games to create an original Star Wars adventure that is different from anything that has been done before.” - Yves Guillemot, cofounder and CEO of Ubisoft

Now Electronic Arts, or EA, has a deal that is active for another two years, which seems to be fine as the team at Massive have only just begun.

David Polfeldt, Managing Director at Massive Entertainment had this to say about the game.

Right now, we are in the beginning of our new journey, so we are still working out many of the details. But, what we can tell you is that this will be a story-driven open-world game.

The reason why this is big news is that it means going forward, EA will no longer have the exclusive rights to making Star Wars games, which they have had since May 2013. That deal, which is set for 10 years, meant that no other publisher could release games set within the world of Star Wars, this new announcement changes that.

The deal with EA, which again still has a few years left to run, just means that this new game is unlikely to release until June 2023 at the very earliest, but even when this game is released, EA will still be making games.

“We’re really proud of the games we have created with EA,” Reilly says. “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.”

Finally, when asked who the game might be for, Julian Gerighty, the Creative Director said:

We want to bring both lifelong and new fans on an immersive and outstanding journey that will stick with them for years. We want to leverage Massive’s talent for creating incredible worlds and refined gameplay to deliver an unforgettable game, especially for players looking to experience an amazing story-driven journey.

Of course, the last big announcement from Massive Entertainment, was that they were working on a new Avatar game, so with the studio working on two massive properties, those looking for The Division 3, might be waiting quite a while.