Finally, there is new hope for Star Wars games. For years, only Electronic Arts was able to produce a title based on George Lucas' classic, but the deal has finally expired, and now Ubisoft has stepped into the ring. Earlier today (January 13), Ubisoft studio Massive announced that it is working on a story-driven, open-world Star Wars game that will kick off a "long-term collaboration with Disney and Lucasfilm."

The information comes from a Ubisoft press release, which also includes an interview with two Massive developers: the game's managing director, David Polfeldt, and creative director, Julian Gerighty. The two developers comment (in somewhat vague terms) on their plans for the game and what they can add to an IP as overused as Star Wars.

"Right now we are at the beginning of a new journey and we are still working out a lot of the details. What we can tell you, however, is that it will be a story-driven, open-world game."

"This is a galaxy we at Massive love, and we want to take players on a journey they have never experienced before in this beloved lore."

While this doesn't tell us much, we can assume that the game will probably be an original Star Wars story, rather than reusing areas from the movies and TV show. This makes sense for a game that encourages players to explore and challenge themselves at their own pace.

Ubisoft is no stranger to open world games. In fact, a common criticism of the company is that many of its games lean too heavily on the same formula. Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Ghost Recon, Immortals: Phoenix Rising, and even The Crew all share a fair amount of DNA. Often you explore an area, find lots of side activities and optional collectibles, do them to improve your skills, advance a bit in the story, and then repeat the process in an entirely new area for up to 100 hours. It is not hard to imagine that a "Star Wars" game would follow much the same procedure, but this time you might be exploring multiple planets instead of just one city or country.

It is worth noting that while EA no longer has exclusive rights to produce Star Wars games, the license has not completely transferred to Ubisoft. In fact, the expiration of this agreement means that Lucasfilm will be able to sign with any studio that wants to develop a Star Wars game, just as LucasArts did in the past; EA is still developing a Star Wars game, and Ubisoft is currently developing one as well. In the coming months, we will almost certainly hear of other studios with interesting new interpretations of this mythology.

The release date, price, and supported platforms for Massive's Star Wars game are still unknown, but it is likely to be at least a few years away. Until then, you can always play Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen Order with a patch for next-gen consoles at any time.