About 20 minutes of footage of a cancelled project, called Star Wars: First Assault, has surfaced on YouTube. User Extracheat113 uploaded the video a few days ago, and it was subsequently posted to Reddit yesterday. The footage shows an empty, sun-soaked level on Tatooine. The character movement and reloading animations, along with the vaguely middle-eastern setting, suggests the gameplay would have been inspired in part by Call of Duty. Extracheat notes that he or she was not able to get bots to load, so the level is devoid of NPCs.
A disclaimer at the bottom of the video says that the game was in technical beta, and was a work in progress. As reports from Kotaku indicate, the game was meant to be a digital-only PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game to release in 2013. Listings had even emerged for the title the year before. Due to Disney’s takeover of LucasFilm, projects were frozen in preparation for the deal. It is obvious now that First Assault was cancelled, but why hasn’t been entirely discussed.
Before mourning this game that never was, remember that EA and DICE are preparing to unleash more battles between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire when they release Star Wars Battlefront for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on Tuesday, November 17.
“Leaked Star Wars Game Is 'Predecessor' To Battlefront III, Source Says” by Kotaku