Star Wars: Hunters in-game footage teased – doesn’t look great

The first footage of Zynga’s new free-to-play Star Wars game has appeared during an Apple event and it isn’t very encouraging.

A game called Star Wars: Hunters sound pretty exciting – maybe that Mandalorian inspired bounty hunter game everyone’s been hoping for – but the reality is rather less intriguing.

For a start the game is by FarmVille maker Zynga and is intended only for release on Nintendo Switch and mobiles as a free-to-play title. And if that sets alarm bells ringing the first footage is unlikely to switch them off.

The game’s a third person, multiplayer arena combat game, which is presented in-universe as a gladiatorial event that bounty hunters, Jedi, and Sith all compete in – which seems so absurdly off-brand it’s kind of shocking that Lucasfilm Games okayed it.

The big reveal this week has been a pre-rendered trailer introducing the main characters, but Apple also unveiled a few seconds of actual gameplay footage during their iPhone 13 reveal event.

It looks exactly as you’d expect, which is to say a generic multiplayer action game whose connections to the Star Wars universe are perilously thin.

Some new screenshots also leaked but the only positive news is that the game is being developed by British developer NaturalMotion and Boss Alien, the latter best known for the CSR Racing series.

If you are interested in the game – and it is free so you might as well give it a go anyway – the other news is that it’s been delayed and won’t now be out this year.

As to what will be the next proper Star Wars game, it’s still unclear. Respawn are working on a sequel to Fallen Order but it hasn’t even been officially announced yet.

Likewise, Ubisoft’s new open world game hasn’t been seen in public yet and the only ones that have been are the recently unveiled Knights of the Old Republic remake and the repeatedly delayed Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.