When EA struck a deal with Disney shortly after the House of Mouse acquired the Star Wars property – jettisoning LucasArts in the process – ardent fans of the space opera were cautiously optimistic to see the fruits of said partnership. Without doubt, the marquee product to come out of the agreement thus far is DICE’s Battlefront, which is on course for a release in November, but there’s another title quietly simmering in development over at Dead Space developer Visceral Games.
Little is know about the project aside from the fact that prestigious writer Amy Hennig joined the team following her abrupt departure from Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Naughty Dog. However, if a recent Twitter conversation is any indication, Visceral may be taking cues from Pandemic’s Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction – published by LucasArts back in 2005 – through its open-world setting and blockbuster scope.
Here’s what Game Director Scott Warner had to share about the action-adventure title, all the while dropping a fairly huge hint that Mercenaries and its free-roaming game design may have some bearing on Visceral’s Star Wars project.
We are still super proud of Mercenaries. We pioneered destruction, air strikes, sandbox combat and outposts in an open world action game.
— Scott Warner (@scottfeed) May 17, 2015
“Chewie, we’re home…” #StarWars#Mercenaries#hansolopic.twitter.com/ESFHvHR0jF
— Scott Warner (@scottfeed) May 17, 2015
A bona fide tease? Or just a mountain out of a mole hill? Only time will tell whether Warner’s Tweets hold any semblance of truth, though it’s something worth keeping in mind as Visceral gears up to reveal its Star Wars game in earnest. While Battlefront will no doubt chew up the scenery at EA’s conference at E3, there’s a small chance the publisher may at the very least announce a title for the in-development project, and we’ll have it all for you right here as it happens.