Star Wars Jedi:Fallen Order, despite being nominated for and winning an impressive number of awards since its release in November 2019, has also received criticism for the excessive amount of glitches in the game. It turns out thatdeveloper Respawn Entertainmentwas aware of the many issues and decided to release the third-person action title anyway.
Respawn’s CEO Vince Zampella stated that the company considered delaying the launch ofStar WarsJedi: Fallen Orderbut ultimately decided to release the game, bugs intact, in order to get it on shelves in time for the holidays.
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Zampella admitted that if Respawn had taken the time to fix the knowntechnical issues,Jedi: Fallen Orderwould undoubtedly have released as a better game. “At the same time,” he said, “we could play through it. It was good and we felt like fans were going to like it.” Getting the game in stores on the target launch date on multiple platforms ultimately proved to be more important to the company.
Also in November, the television showThe Mandalorianlaunched on Disney+, the company’s on-demand streaming service. And the final film of the Skywalker saga,Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,released a month later. The end of 2019 truly was the season forStar Warsand it’s questionable whetherJedi: Fallen Orderwould have fared as well in sales if it had released even a few months later than it did.
Although the issues might have lowered the review scores of some critics, Respawn’s choice doesn’t seem to have hurt the game’s success much, as it has received predominantly positive reviews on Metacritic, OpenCritic, and Steam. It was the sixth bestselling game of 2019, despite only coming out in November, and EA announced in January that it is the highest-ratedStar Warsgame of this console generation. In 2019 the game brought home three Titanium awards, in February it wonAdventure Game of the Year at the 23rd Annual DICE Awards, and it is also currently nominated for numerous NAVGTR and SXSW Gaming Awards.
In the case ofJedi: Fallen Order, releasing the game with known technical issues and bugs was a gamble that paid off. That’s not always the case, however, and often it’s gamers who pay the price for such decisions. One need only look at the constant issues experienced by players ofFallout 76and 2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfareto see examples of this. Hopefully, in the future, more game developers and publishers will follow the example of Square Enix and CD Projekt Red, who delayed the releases ofFinal Fantasy VII RemakeandCyberpunk 2077by several months to give players the polished and finished games they’re expecting and paying for.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderreleased in November 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
