Star Wars Games Still Need To Overcome One Big Problem

Since audiences were first introduced to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and the rest of George Lucas’ galaxy almost 50 years ago, it’s become one of the most expansive works of science fiction ever made. Before Disney bought the franchise in 2012, it amassed a humongous universe of novels, comic books, TV shows, and games, and after rebranding the “Extended Universe” as the non-canon Legends banner, Disney got to work replacing it with its own sprawling canon.

Every Star Wars era has benefited from having its lore expanded by a larger media ecosystem, and a huge part of that has always been video games. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, based in part on Dark Horse’s Tales of the Jedi comic book series, is one of the most consequential expansions of the franchise ever made. But while that was set in the distant past, Disney’s games have focused more on familiar moments from the timeline, such as the original trilogy’s conflict or the rise of the Empire in the aftermath of the prequels. Many of the contemporary games have been good, but most share a common flaw, one less reflective of their individual quality than of the cohesion of Star Wars as a brand right now: none of these games have felt consequential to the larger franchise.

One of the brilliant things about Star Wars is that, unlike the Insomniac Spider-Man games or something like Hogwarts Legacy, its video games take place in the exact same canon as everything else. Theoretically, there’s no division between what happens in games and what happens in films and TV shows, and there’s something meaningful and reassuring about the idea that the stories you engage with in a different medium are unfolding within the same overarching narrative that began back in 1977.

Some games don’t rock the boat too much — the Star Wars Battlefront games, for instance, are all about recreating massive battles from the films in the form of large-scale multiplayer combat arenas. But in the case of games like Star Wars Outlaws or the Star Wars Jedi series, it feels a little bewildering that these characters and stories haven’t been noted in canon.

Back when the Legends imprint was still canon, the reveal that the main character of Knights of the Old Republic was an amnesic Darth Revan became a defining part of the extended universe. He was an important comic book figure and was even slated to appear as a Force ghost in The Clone Wars. Compare that to Order 66 survivor Cal Kestis, the star of two successful games and a guerrilla antagonist to the Empire.

Despite encountering Darth Vader himself, he’s yet to appear on-screen, only receiving a mention in the Anakin and Obi-Wan-centric book Star Wars: Brotherhood. Not every game’s story necessitates ripple effects in other media, and a lack of references in other media doesn’t negate the quality of the games, but you’d think that a character who’s battled multiple Inquisitors, survived an encounter with Darth Vader, and is branded a criminal by the Empire would be important enough to get a shout-out somewhere.

The next Star Wars games on the release schedule are Zero Company, a turn-based tactics game set during the Clone Wars, and Fate of the Old Republic, a spiritual successor to KOTOR. Only time will tell how successful those games are and how relevant their stories will be to the overarching canon, but at some point, it would be exciting to see some real crossover between this era of games and mainstream Star Wars media. Interconnected universes come with their own problems, but what’s the point of having such a tightly linked galaxy if we know that some characters won’t ever get to leave their small quadrant?