Project Maverick leak may be our first look at the oddest Star Wars game yet
A European PlayStation Store leak may have revealed EA Motive's "unusual" Star Wars game prematurely.
A rogue European PlayStation Store listing has prematurely teased Star Wars Project Maverick, the next major Star Wars video game. It's likely that this is the "weird" Star Wars game from EA Motive previously reported to be in development.
According to Wccftech, this listing was first spotted by PSN release, a Twitter bot that monitors every update to the global PlayStation stores. On Wednesday morning, it spotted that Star Wars Project Maverick was added to the European PS Store, along with a piece of key art that shows X-Wings and a Star Destroyer in what appears to be the lava-covered planet Mustafar, where Anakin and Obi-Wan had their climactic duel, and where Vader later establishes his fortress. Unfortunately, no further information came from this leak, but it's not hard to narrow down just what this game might be.
This image was added to the European PS Store, leaking the next Star Wars game.
In 2013, EA acquired the exclusive license to make Star Wars video games. Sadly, its time with the license has been pretty tumultuous as EA has canceled more Star Wars console games than it has released, and both Star Wars Battlefront and its sequel were marred with controversy around their launches for different reasons. EA Star Wars games are at a high point now though thanks to the successful launch of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in November 2019.
In a February report, Kotaku revealed a Star Wars project codenamed Viking had been canceled, but also teased what EA had in store. This included Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2 as well as a "smaller, more unusual project" from Canadian studio EA Motive.
UPDATE (12:40 p.m. Eastern): Jason Schreier has confirmed that Project Maverick is indeed that "smaller, more unusual project" he referenced in the February Kotaku story.
While Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2 is still years out, this listing indicates that we will have a Star Wars game to sink our teeth into in 2020. This game is set to be the first major release for EA Motive as it has not put out a game of its own since being founded in 2015. So far, it is best known for working on the Star Wars Battlefront 2 campaign.
The Inverse Analysis
Even before Jason Schreier's confirmation, I trusted the leak because Resident Evil 3 and the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo were both prematurely shown this way and turned out to be true. Now that EA Motive's game has a title attached to it, we will almost assuredly be hearing more about it soon. That then raises the question of what exactly Star Wars Project Maverick will be about.
The Sith structures and molten looking environment in the key art suggest that it could be centered around Mustafar or another planet with a similarly dour aesthetic. If it is on Mustafar, Project Maverick could possibly take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, just like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and VR game Vader Immortal.
There's also the matter of how it will play. As a "smaller, more unusual" title Star Wars Project Maverick may not fit the typical shooter or action game mold of EA's Star Wars titles. This opens the can of worms up for genres we haven't seen from Star Wars games that much, like real-time-strategy or horror.
No matter what it is, this European PS Store listing suggests that a reveal is imminent and we will be learning more about Star Wars Project Maverick soon.
