Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – fans would rather Respawn fix the current versions (pic: EA)
There’s no launch window yet, but EA and Respawn are in the early stages of porting Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to PS4 and Xbox One.
At the start of the generation it was common for publishers to port last gen games to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, in order to maximise sales and capitalise on a new audience.
Yet how often does the reverse happen? Not very often, but that’s precisely what EA is doing with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Despite being billed as a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S exclusive when it was announced, EA says it’s now working on a last gen port for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
It made sense for companies to launch games across both console generations during the early days of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, since not everyone could get hold of the newer consoles. However, it’s increasingly more common now for new AAA titles to be next gen only.
It’s not as if Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has been struggling in sales either. In fact, EA is happy to boast that it had a fantastic first quarter for the 2024 fiscal year (April to June), with its new Star Wars game being a contributing factor.
The publisher hasn’t shared exact sales figures for the game, but the quarter’s total sales for EA were $1.578 billion (about £1.23 billion), which is up 21% compared to last year.
Plus, CEO Andrew Wilson says more people are playing Star Wars Jedi: Survivor compared to its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. At the very least, this should eliminate any lingering doubts within EA that single-player games aren’t worth making.
It should also guarantee Star Wars Jedi becomes a trilogy, as its director was hoping.
‘Thanks to the strength of this legendary franchise and community demand, our development team has committed to bringing this Jedi experience to PS4 and Xbox One,’ said Wilson in an earnings call (as transcribed by VGC).
‘Over the coming year, we will harness the community’s passion and capitalise on key Star Wars franchise moments to drive continued engagement for this incredible game.’
Under normal circumstances this should be good news, since it means more people can play Star Wars Jedi: Survivor now, but the announcement has elicited dread and frustration from fans, since the game still suffers from technical problems across all platforms, particularly on PC.
More: Trending
Even after various updates and patches, Steam user reviews remain mixed, with some negative ones being as recent as today.
‘Tried to play this on 3080ti at 1440p with FSR on Performance and settings on Medium, but gave up – low and inconsistent FPS and stutters had become unbearable,’ reads one by DeVitus.
‘This game is so terribly optimised, yet very good. The technical issues if you asked me, so far in my playthrough, outweigh the good,’ admits Stealth.
As such, there are concerns that EA and developer Respawn are opting to focus on these last gen ports rather than fix the current versions. Perhaps aware of this reaction, EA adds ‘Additional performance improvements for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S remain a top priority at Respawn and the team will share more information as soon as the next update is ready’ (via IGN).
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There’s no launch window yet, but EA and Respawn are in the early stages of porting Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to PS4 and Xbox One.