Star Wars has been known as a massive media empire for over 40 years. Between the movies, shows, books, and anything you can think of, it's had a looming presence everywhere. The video games have been an important outlet and pillar in the franchise for just as long. But, for every Star Wars game that comes out, there's one that was forsaken and forgotten to time. Prior to the infamous Disney buyout of Lucasfilm, there were a lot of spinning plates.
So, let's take a look at what games Emperor Palpatine put out an Order 66 on with 10 Canceled Star Wars Games You Never Knew Existed. Be careful, because Star Wars related spoilers may be sprinkled in ahead.
10 Star Wars: Uprising
This one deserves a quick discussion for multiple reasons. Star Wars: Uprising is the only game on this list to actually come out to the public and exist for a while. While Star Wars Galaxies, the ill-fated (and currently non-canon) PC MMORPG, met an untimely end and was canceled just the same, Uprising played a really important role in Post-Disney, modern Star Wars.
Star Wars: Uprising was a rogue-like mobile game that was the first time any piece of media had ventured beyond Return of the Jedi after Disney bought out the franchise. Playing as The Smuggler and dealing with events in the Anoat Sector (think Hoth and Bespin), it gave fans their first glimpse into the eventual future of the series and told its own story along the way until its demise only a year after release.
9 Star Wars: Rivals
Star Wars: Rivals is another mobile game that seemingly bit off more than it could chew. Offering both PVP and single-player content, this game was promised to be an epic Star Wars shooter, spanning all eras of galactic conflict. While the reboot of the Battlefront series left more to be desired, this would help fill some of that Sarlacc Pit-sized hole that fans wanted out of modern Star Wars games.
Back in June 2017, Australia and New Zealand got to play it for some time, as they're generally utilized as test audiences for mobile games. But, it stayed down under until it officially went under not long after, since fan response was pretty negative. The West never even saw its twin suns rise, sadly.
8 Star Wars 1313
Star Wars 1313 is one that possibly hurts the most and is burned into the minds of fans. Before the Disney buyout, Lucasfilm and Lucasarts had a media strategy that was going to span canon across most of their media and involve a now-shelved live-action show called Star Wars: Underworld.
It would explain more of the lesser-known stories of the franchise and would involve the depths of Coruscant. Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon even featured a late-season story that involved Ahsoka on level 1312. 1313 would have followed everyone's favorite Bounty Hunter that lets their clients do their job for them, Boba Fett. In the end, all that was left is concept art, trailers, and a broken promise.
7 Knights of the Old Republic 3
While the Knights of the Old Republic games did eventually get a full-fledged MMORPG called Star Wars: The Old Republic, KOTOR 3 was imagined to be the end of a single-player Star Wars Trilogy by the creative teams involved. The main protagonist of this third installment would eventually battle "really ancient Sith Lords."
Where the first two games told very personal stories, this game would revolve around "environmental storytelling." It would have been an epic continuation (and conclusion) to an awesome series of games, but Knights 3 never got its day.
6 Darth Maul
Back before the Disney times and before the Empire, a Darth Maul game was in the works from Red Fly Studio. The original concept of this game would have followed a young Maul being taught by Palpatine and eventually wanting to kill his master himself (as most Sith eventually want). It would have led up to the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
After being informed of Maul surviving the encounter with Obi-Wan (which would eventually be told via The Clone Wars cartoon), the direction was changed entirely to focus on that era. This stealth action game would have taken inspiration from Batman: Arkham Asylum. After George Lucas decided they should focus on a descendant of Maul that worked with Darth Talon 170 years in the future, the game was eventually scrapped.
5 Imperial Commando
A well-loved 2005 game titled Star Wars: Republic Commando followed the action of some elite Clone Troopers during the Clone Wars era. The story follows Delta Squad and their exploits through different famous planets. There was a big media campaign that included novels to continue their story and they were even included in an episode of The Clone Wars cartoon.
Finally, there was a novel named Imperial Commando: 501st that saw the team members enlisted officially as Imperial Commandos in the 501st Legion to hunt down escaped Jedi after the fall of the Republic. While it's all speculation of what the story would have been, the canceled game would likely have followed the same team during the early days of the Empire.
4 Battlefront III
Welcome back to canceled Star Wars games that sting the most. Let's look at Star Wars Battlefront III. This is a case where the game was "pretty much done" in 2008 when Free Radical Design lost the rights, even though it had so much potential.
The original two games were hoisted onto a pedestal by fans, so turning the series into a trilogy would have likely included more returning features. The second game included a story that focused on a Clone trooper in the Republic and a Stormtrooper in the Empire, spanning the bridge between Episode III and IV. Additionally, Battlefront IV was even in the works. But, when Battlefront III was canned, the entire series got the long end of the lightsaber before the eventual reboot by Disney.
3 Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leaders
Star Wars: Rogue Leaders: Rogue Squadron Wii (yea, that's a mouthful) was a compilation by Factor 5 that would have brought the first three Rogue Squadron games to the new era on the Nintendo Wii. While the game would have included Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader, and Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, not much else is known about the collection.
It could likely have just been a port of the classics or potentially an entirely new remaster. Seeing as this would have been out on the Nintendo Wii around 2008 or 2009, it could have hinted at more to come before Factor 5 fell off the face of the galaxy.
2 Visceral Games (Ragtag) & EA Vancouver (Orca)
Do you want an open-world Star Wars game set during the time of the Empire developed by the same team that did the Dead Space games and led by the director of the first three Uncharted games? Cool, so that got canceled too.
The project was known internally as Ragtag. Then EA moved Amy Hennig (the director) over to EA Vancouver along with the ill-fated project, shuttering Visceral Games. Ragtag was rebooted completely, becoming a project named Orca. Since then, Orca was seemingly canceled in favor of a smaller unknown project. Who knows what the future may hold at this point.
1 Star Wars: Attack Squadrons
Announced late in 2013, the short-lived Star Wars: Attack Squadrons was a browser-based arcade-style space simulator that featured customizable ships and multiple modes for up to 16 players. It was developed in Unity Game Engine and had a closed beta period where some people got to actually play the game.
It's unknown exactly why it was canceled, but could have been due to Disney eventually wanting to get out of the games-making business or the need to focus on the (then) upcoming sequel trilogy. Luckily, Star Wars Battlefront 2 (the reboot version) saw an even more epic scale version of this game included within.