Want another Rogue Squadron or X-Wing game? This 2016 prototype makes the wait even worse
After watching ace pilot Poe Dameron at work in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you're probably all the more eager for a return to the days of Rogue Squadron and X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. The space battles of Star Wars Battlefront 2 are good, but this 2016 pitch video from the developers of Rebel Galaxy will show you what a full-fledged Star Wars space combat game could look like in modern times. Hint: it's real nice.
Developer Double Damage told Kotaku that it put the prototype's "modernized take on X-Wing" together in a few weeks using a combination of new and existing assets, and then pitched its vision to Electronic Arts (EA has almost-exclusive publishing rights for PC/console Star Wars games, thanks to a deal it signed with Disney back in 2013). Nothing came from the proposal, though Double Damage founder Travis Baldree admitted the studio didn't really expect it to; they "probably did it to please [them]selves rather than out of any hope that it would get greenlit."
So far, the only games to result from EA's Star Wars deal have been Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Battlefront 2, and the mobile-exclusive Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. EA canceled or significantly altered a narrative-driven action adventure game in development by Visceral after it closed the studio. There's also another third-person action adventure Star Wars project in the works at Respawn Entertainment.
So unless EA has another secret Star Wars project that we don't know about, it probably didn't turn down Double Damage's pitch because it was too similar to something it already had going on. But we can always hope.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi spoiler free review
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.