It’s been nearly two years now since Quantic Dream’s Star Wars: Eclipse was announced at The Game Awards 2021. It wasn’t long after that when we found out that the game was potentially years away with the studio taking on other projects at the same time. Fast forward to today and now we’re being given major tidbit from Insider Gaming that it’s probably even further out than that. The publication is reporting that Quantic Dream is targeting a date for sometime in 2026 to launch Star Wars: Eclipse, and yet it might not even make that year the release time frame.
According to their sources, the developer has been going through some serious hiring struggles. The source claims that this is due to major allegations of “workplace issues, including sexual harassment, crunch, and toxic work culture.” They also state that the whistleblower that initially brought this to light way back in 2018 still has legal battles ongoing with the developer, although they expect that to be completed by the end of this year. With the hiring issues, as well as the seemingly long development cycle, it appears that we won’t be seeing Star Wars: Eclipse for quite some time.
These are the same Insider Gaming sources that reported on the studio being acquired by NetEase in September 2022 before it was officially announced. This will also be the very first time that Quantic Dream is taking on a project that isn’t an original IP, as all of their projects up to this point have been in-house creations. The most well-known examples of this are 2005’s Fahrenheit, 2010’s Heavy Rain, and 2018’s Detroit: Become Human. All three titles have gone on to be critically acclaimed to varying degrees and supplanted the studio as a heavy hitter in the video game industry. However, due to the highly advanced technical development cycle that all of their IPs undergo, each title has a rather lengthy progression system. Hopefully, they’re able to get Star Wars: Eclipse off of the early phases soon.