Mourning the Forgotten 'Star Wars' Games That Never Were

Did you ever hear the tragedy of Star Wars 1313? It’s not a story developers would tell you.

Video games are an intense business to be involved in right now. From text-based indies that last five minutes to AAA titles potentially spanning hundreds of hours and everything in between, the industry is both ripe with potential and plagued by such a saturated market. Similarly, tying any project to a specific IP can either do wonders for fans and sales alike or cause the project to fizzle out before it even catches a spark.

Regardless, development teams forge ahead. For a decades-old franchise like Star Wars, which has included video games since nearly the beginning, it's no wonder that some flopped and others were never meant to be.

The list below is not at all exhaustive. Rather, it features games with more comprehensive histories and followings, rather than those shut down before their polygons saw the light of day.

The Games That Never Were

Star Wars 1313: Rather than the lightsaber and Force-related combat seen in so many of the beloved films, Star Wars 1313 was to be a fast-paced action game in which players would take on the role of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. 

Bruno Werneck/Lucasilm

Emphasizing gunplay, utilizing bounty-related tools and gadgets, and a grunge aesthetic, the player would traverse the Coruscant underworld, living out Boba Fett’s early adulthood. LucasArts, which still oversaw game development at the time, announced the game at E3 2013 and was hoping for an M-rating. The absence of 1313 is an old wound that continues to ache.

After Disney acquired Lucasfilm, 1313 did not survive the transition. The glimmer of hope that the game would miraculously recover faded when Star Wars 1313's trademark expired in 2014, officially marking the project as abandoned. 

The Force Unleashed III: The Force Unleashed series found players taking on the role of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, codenamed Starkiller. The focal point of a multimedia project, the first game was praised for its physics, graphical fidelity, and voice acting. Despite two books, miniatures, graphic novels, a sequel game, and much potential, Starkiller’s story ended abruptly.

A character who may be even more damaged than Anakin Skywalker, and we didn’t even get a complete arc? We still think about him.

Lucasfilm

Project Ragtag: With Amy Hennig (of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series fame) at the helm of this untitled entry, fans were eager to see what would come of the third-person shooter. The premise for Ragtag was a linear, large-scale heist connected to the plot of Episode IV: A New Hope. After at least four years of development, Electronic Arts (EA) canceled the project and shut down Visceral Games, the studio working on it.

Rumors persist that EA closed Visceral Games to focus on multiplayer games following the release of 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront reboot. Interestingly, we saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws in 2024, which skirts the line between 1313 and Project Ragtag in terms of tone. Maybe someday, there will be room for even more scoundrel-related games.

More Battlefronts: Say Star Wars: Battlefront, and any Star Wars video game fan will conjure an image of their favorite out of several entries. After the first two entries, Battlefront and Battlefront II, work began on a third game. However, by 2008, development on Battlefront III ceased.

Later, despite III’s cancellation, concept art for Battlefront IV emerged. These pieces reflected previously unseen ideas, such as an alternate reality where some of our beloved Jedi had turned to the dark side. 

When EA DICE rebooted Battlefront with a 2015 release, this iteration also had a sequel and a canceled spin-off. There isn’t much information out there on the spin-off, but it is interesting to note the parallel tumult.

And Those Gone Too Soon

Tiny Death Star: Before the more popular construction management simulators tied to IPs like Bethesda's Fallout Shelter, there was the time-sinking business simulation game, Tiny Death Star. Announced in 2013 and pulled from storefronts in 2014, it’s not the only mobile game to lose momentum about a year after release. (Weirdly, it felt like it had been out significantly longer.)

Disney Mobile/Lucasfilm

I’m not going to say deleting the app is one of my biggest regrets. Still, I would be curious to know how helpful the game was in naming new, original characters. Some standouts I’ve seen on forums include Talon Ashgad, Vima Lennox, and a scout trooper named Ben Kenobi — not to be confused with, y’know, that Ben Kenobi.

Hunters: As a gamer who isn’t super into live service or PvP games, I never got into Hunters, but there are plenty of Youtinians, both on staff and within the community, who absolutely adored it. Unfortunately, less than a year after its release, servers will go offline on October 1, 2025, and with them, a short-lived legacy.

How is success measured in a game like this? One immersed in the fanbase could certainly argue that it was successful, and there is evidence to suggest that Zynga, the game’s publisher, and Disney believed in the game, considering the tie-in novel. Furthermore, millions of downloads for a free-to-play game are not insignificant. However, it can be difficult to constantly push out updates and content that keeps the cash flowing, so it's possible the game struggled to make money.

Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron: Not technically gone, but who still has a PSP? I’m desperate to know. As I said, anyone who has played a Battlefront game has their favorite entry. This one, with its story mode, customization options, and portability, was mine. Admittedly, I was pretty young when it came out and not what I would consider a strong critic.

Making the Old Accessible

So much to be said about video games and reboots, remasters, and remakes. The first Star Wars video game was an Atari arcade cabinet, subsequently released for various home consoles and personal computers. Later, more games would be released whose stories spanned from retellings loosely based on the film(s) to flight simulators that still rule.

The Jedi Knight Series, Bounty Hunter, Racer, Knights of the Old Republic, Force Unleashed, and Republic Commando. 

These are titles that have recently been remastered, remade, or rebooted in some capacity for modern consoles. Although the reaction to these kinds of releases can be mixed, making video games accessible is a laudable endeavor that often requires overcoming unique challenges. 

These hurdles can include lost media, hardware limitations, and complex legal and ownership questions. Whether a game is an entirely faithful adaptation or remade with modern design sensibilities to (hopefully) enhance the gaming experience, it is nice to be able to enjoy artifacts experienced by other fans.

Electronic Arts/Lucasfilm via author

The Future of Games

At the time of this writing, EA had just announced Zero Company, and we received yet another update regarding Star Wars Eclipse, reminding some of us that it existed and reassuring others that it was not necessarily in development limbo. Cal Kestis and the final installment in the Star Wars Jedi trilogy will also be around eventually.

And that's just what we know so far.

Star Wars Canon (and Legends) are rich in inspiration for various styles of video games. It’s not uncommon to see a diverse array of gameplay elements on wishlists with a galaxy so vast. It almost feels like the potential is endless. 

Being a fan of video games in any capacity allows us to create a community and connect with others worldwide. They are truly incredible pieces of technology created to entertain, tell stories, evoke emotion, and so much more. The future of Star Wars video games appears bright and full of potential. Hopefully, these upcoming corners of the galaxy will be as fun as previous entries and include some of the fascinating ideas from unfinished projects and those that had a short run.