As is often the case whenever the gaming world finds itself on the cusp of welcoming a brand new generation of consoles into the fold, many third-party publishers find themselves having to make difficult decisions. Take, for example, Star Wars: Squadrons. EA has confirmed that the budget action title is on course to land this October for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. And while official release dates for Series X and PS5 have yet to be announced, the general consensus appears to be that Microsoft and Sony are targeting a late October to November launch.
In order to ensure their creations reach as wide an audience as possible, then, companies such as Square Enix have outlined plans to release Marvel’s Avengers for both generations, with early adopters of next-gen who already own the initial version able to upgrade free of charge. Squadrons, on the other hand, won’t be following suit. In answering one fan’s question on the topic, Squadrons‘ creative director Ian S. Frazier said:
We’re not planning a separate version of the game for the next-gen consoles, but yes, the backwards compatibility should work.
An unexpected response? Not really. It’s worth noting, after all, that literal decades have passed since any developer attempted to create a compelling space combat Star Wars title. Should the project fail to be a commercial success – early previews certainly paint a positive picture – EA would have no reason to funnel resources into releasing a spruced up next-gen version. If, however, the experiment turns out to be successful, we wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the situation change.
Star Wars: Squadrons is out October 2nd for the aforementioned platforms and you can find all of the latest details over here.