EA Reveals Star Wars: Squadrons, a Multiplayer Dogfighting Game, in New Trailer

Electronic Arts revealed its first trailer for Star Wars: Squadrons this Monday, which promises exciting 5v5 dogfights between Star Wars’ iconic spacecraft.

Motive Studios, the team behind Star Wars Battlefront II’s single-player campaign, is fully in charge of developing the title. Squadrons also has a single-player mode planned, delving into the characters behind the cockpits of both the New Republic’s X-wings and the Empire’s TIE fighters, a nice change of pace from the franchise’s tradition of introducing and killing them within a few minutes.

The story is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The trailer suggests segments will be split between the light and dark sides, so hopefully the game will offer some interesting perspectives from both squadrons. It doesn’t look much more involved than a simple conceit to get some into some space battles, but you never know.

EA got exclusive rights to use the Star Wars license in its games (with some exceptions, such as the Lego games and mobile titles) in 2013, with the contract lasting 10 years until 2023. In that time, its offerings with the license have varied in quality. Its two Star Wars Battlefront games got mixed reception due in large part to some predatory use of loot boxes, whereas 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was viewed by many as a quality single-player venture, even if its hodgepodge of different games’ elements left it feeling a bit uninspired.

Star Wars: Squadrons launches Oct. 2 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, with VR support for PS4 and PC and cross-play between platforms. No word yet on whether the game is coming to next-gen hardware as well, which could launch as early as the following month if they meet the “holiday 2020” window. An “EA Play” stream will show off Squadron’s gameplay June 18 at 7 p.m.