Canceled action-RPG Star Wars: Magellan showcased via gameplay footage and animation

Given the scale and high expectations surrounding most Star Wars game projects, it is not surprising that many ambitious projects remain unrealized. We've seen a slew of high-profile cancellations over the past few years, the most notable of which are the first cut of Aspyr's Knights of the Old Republic remake and Respawn Entertainment's first-person shooter based on The Mandalorian.

However, the game discussed in this article was completely unknown until now. We are talking about an unannounced project that the now defunct studio Echtra Games was working on. Before Zynga closed Echtra last June, the studio was developing a mysterious AAA action RPG. Now we've learned that the project was supposed to be a Star Wars game before it was cancelled.

Gameplay and animation of Star Wars: Magellan from Echtra Games.

The development of this role-playing game was initially confirmed in early 2021 as a collaboration with NaturalMotion, another Zynga subsidiary with experience working with Star Wars intellectual property. From that moment until the closure of the studio, exact information about the game was kept in the strictest confidence. However, our recent discoveries confirm that the game bore the internal code number "Magellan".

We know this because development footage of the project has finally surfaced, courtesy of former Echtra Games developer who uploaded a video demo of the game to his personal portfolio.While we're keeping the developer anonymous for privacy reasons, the footage he provided gives us a clear idea of what the studio has been working on.

In the presented videos, we see fragments of gameplay and animation, shot from a third person for a Mandalorian and a Jedi, in a multiplayer ARPG with shoot-and-loot mechanics. In terms of stylistic choices, it's hard not to notice echoes of Star Wars: Hunters in the character designs, which fit perfectly with the collaboration between the studios.

Among the recurring characters in the materials, two specific images can be identified: a masked gunslinger, identified in the files as "Triggerman", and a blue Twi'lek Jedi, simply identified as "Cleric". It remains unknown whether these were intended as fixed character templates or base templates for fully customizable heroes.

Combat between the two character classes features battles against all sorts of enemies of the Empire, from classic stormtroopers to heavy mechanized threats like giant boss droids. To counter these foes, players can use a variety of signature abilities, including Force manipulation and lightsaber combat like the Jedi, as well as the jetpack, powerful fire, and flamethrower like the Mandalorian. The use of various gadgets is also shown, such as electric grenades and devices for deploying protective camps.

The video also features snippets of missions in development, which include tasks such as finding a specific character or warehouse, destroying or hacking signal networks, and searching cargo containers.These episodes showcase the game's core resource-gathering element, with players obtaining items such as Equipment Boosters from defeated enemies and opening reward chests scattered throughout Imperial bases.

In addition to the videos, we also learned that the game was planning to have an “NPC relationship system.” This mechanism was integrated directly into the overall story strategy, suggesting that building relationships with non-player characters played an important role in the story along with the action.

After the fight sequences, the second part of the footage moves on to raw animation and rigging clips, demonstrating the technical basis of the project. This segment features a wide range of character models and creatures, from standard stormtroopers and dual-wielding Mandalorians to alien monsters such as the four-legged Gundark, dog-like predators, and heavily armored security droids.

All this work was carried out on the Unreal Engine 5 with a planned release for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Unfortunately, a strategic realignment within Zynga and Take-Two Interactive ultimately brought an end to both the project and the studio. As a result of the closure, Echtra Games was unable to release a single game from its acquisition by Zynga in 2021 until its closure in 2025.

While fans still have plenty of upcoming Star Wars games, Magellan joins projects like Project Ragtag and Aspyr's KOTOR remake as yet another example of what-ifs in the franchise's long history of canceled video games. Speaking of the KOTOR remake, you can check out what Aspyr was originally developing for Sony in our previous reports.