Defined as a long story of heroic achievement, especially a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic, the development and release history of The Skywalker Saga is far from that.
Fans have been waiting for the release of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga video game since April 2019, when Matthew Wood (the voice of General Grievous) let slip that he was recording new dialogue for an unannounced LEGO Star Wars video game – and since then there has been an erratic dribble of pre-release hype, sales enticements, early-bird exclusives, product tie-ins…
…and a series of pushbacks that have tested the patience – and taxed the attention span – of LEGO Star Wars gamers all over the world.
Initially due for release in the summer of 2020, this was pushed back – and accidentally revealed to be on October 20th before being redacted – to Spring 2021 (which a recent eBay auction uncovered to be May 31st). Like the previous occasion, this date (which was never revealed to the public) was canceled and Tt Games released an announcement in April that the game’s launch – presumably meaning the scheduled May 31st – was delayed again.
With their promise to update us with the launch timing “as soon as possible” over three months ago broken and Tt Games embroiled in the merger of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to Discovery, Inc., fans have declared that enough is enough.
This last tweet – of any kind – was at the start of April and since then there have been no updates on any of their social media platform. In fact, The Skywalker Saga didn’t get any kind of announcement on their official Facebook page, a channel that hasn’t seen any new content since October 2019.
After a string of no-shows at this year’s gaming conventions and with rumors concerning the delays concentrating on the COVID-19 pandemic, next-gen console upgrades, and shocking staff departures, fans took to the development company’s Twitter page (fruity language warning!) to voice their concern.
Eventually the comments petered out – but when they came the language was increasingly adult – and with no replies from Tt Games forthcoming another marketing vacuum was created.
Perhaps most the most alarming of all the comments that have come out of Tt Games in recent months is the throw-away line from Ryan Roper, one of the game designers working on The Skywalker Saga, who was replying to a colleague that had recently left the game developer whose origins began with the first LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game installment.
Notably, the tweet reads like it was written in the past tense, suggesting that either the bulk of the game has been completed or Ryan is no longer on the LEGO Star Wars development team.
With the interest of both LEGO Star Wars gamers and collectors diminishing, questions about the future of the Saga of The Skywalker Saga need to be answered before retailers are forced to issue refunds to this game – like Sony was forced to do with Cyberpunk 2077 last year and the title is consigned to the same bin that contains Half-Life 2: Aftermath and the second LEGO The Hobbit installment – two other games that became boondoggles and then disappeared from the public consciousness.
It’s fair to say that 2020 hasn’t been easy on anyone, but if Disney can produce new feature films, LEGO can continue to release sets and Lucasfilm can develop upcoming TV series then surely Tt Games/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment can post a few placatory updates to explain what is delaying The Skywalker Saga?
What are your thoughts – are you still excited about the game’s prospects, do you want your money back or are you beyond caring now? Share your comments below – you never know who’s checking them.
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