Star Wars: Squadrons

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: Squadrons begins with an act of refusal. Captain Lindon Javes of the Imperial Navy receives orders from Commodore Rae Sloane to eliminate a convoy of refugees at Fostar Haven. He turns on his own wingmen instead, disabling their ships so the convoy can escape. Motive Studio and Electronic Arts released this space combat game on the 2nd of October, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Every player saw the battle from inside a starfighter cockpit, looking out through the instruments rather than from behind the ship. That constraint was the central design gamble. The development team was already committed to another project when this concept was first pitched. How did they build a first-person cockpit game that found a large enough audience to justify the bet?

• 2. Power and Class

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  Distributing power between weapons, shields, and engines is the constant calculation at the core of every engagement. Pilots redirect energy among these three systems in real time, adjusting priorities as each fight shifts. Imperial ships add a complication: they carry no shields at all. To keep the two factions balanced, the Empire's starfighters received other compensating features in place of shields.

  Both sides field four starfighter classes, each pairing a New Republic ship with an Imperial equivalent. Fighters pit the X-wing against the TIE Fighter. Interceptors match the A-Wing against the TIE Interceptor. Bombers field the Y-Wing opposite the TIE Bomber, and Support ships pair the U-Wing with the TIE Reaper.

  Completing Daily Challenges and Operation Challenges earns a currency called Glory. Glory can be spent on cosmetic items for pilots and ships, with no effect on combat performance.

  Dogfight, one of the two online modes, supports up to ten players in a team deathmatch format. Fleet Battles is more structured: two teams of up to five players each compete to destroy the opposing Capital Ships. A later update expanded both rosters, adding the B-Wing to the New Republic's bomber class and the TIE Defender to the Empire's fighter class.

• 3. Vanguard and Titan

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  Terisa Kerrill carries a grudge into the campaign's main timeline. Kerrill was Javes's protege and wingman at Fostar. She is now an Imperial captain, assigned to destroy Project Starhawk before the New Republic can complete it. Her unit, Titan Squadron, works directly against Vanguard Squadron, which Javes commands from the New Republic cruiser Temperance.

  Project Starhawk is a massive battleship assembled from stolen Star Destroyer parts and fitted with a powerful tractor beam. Vanguard Squadron works to see it completed; Titan Squadron is determined to prevent that outcome.

  Javes eventually lures Kerrill into a trap that nearly destroys her Star Destroyer, the Overseer. Rather than wait for repairs, Kerrill has the ship immediately re-armed. Her goal is to destroy the Starhawk even at the cost of her own life. A surprise Imperial assault at the Nadiri Dockyards badly damages the Starhawk, though it survives that attack. In a follow-up strike, Titan Squadron leaves it beyond repair.

  Javes is shot down and presumed dead before the final battle. General Hera Syndulla steps in to lead Vanguard Squadron for a last stand. The squadron uses the Starhawk's wreckage as a weapon, driving what remains into an unstable moon. The collision destroys the Imperial fleet. Kerrill withdraws the Overseer before the end, having already completed her mission of destroying the Starhawk prototype. Both Titan and Vanguard Squadrons receive commendations. While the New Republic announces plans to build additional Starhawk battleships, surviving Imperial officers make their own plans to reclaim control of the galaxy.

• 4. Building Squadrons

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  James Clement and Patrick Lalonde brought the initial concept to Motive Studio leadership as a pitch. Steven Masters joined them to help develop the presentation. With the project approved, a small team led by Ian Frazier began building the production infrastructure before the wider team assembled.

  Clement and Lalonde were still completing the single-player campaign for Star Wars Battlefront II when this work began. The two projects ran in parallel for a time, with a new production taking shape alongside one not yet finished.

  A reveal trailer went public on the 15th of June, 2020. A gameplay trailer followed on the 18th of July, and a campaign-focused trailer debuted at Gamescom 2020 on the 27th of August. By the 10th of September, development had reached gold status, meaning physical editions could go into production.

  The PC version supported virtual reality play with various headsets. PlayStation 4 players could use PlayStation VR. HOTAS flight controllers worked on all platforms, with console editions adding that support through a day-one patch. PlayStation 5 received improved lighting in a post-launch update. Xbox Series X and S launched on the 3rd of December, 2020, with 4K support and higher frame rates.

  On the 14th of September, 2020, a CGI short called Hunted debuted on the Star Wars YouTube channel. Produced by Motive Studios in collaboration with Lucasfilm, Skywalker Sound, and Industrial Light and Magic, it centers on Squadron Leader Varko Grey. He is the last TIE pilot on a battlefield after a New Republic attack. Grey delays his retreat to defend a TIE Bomber pilot but arrives too late to save the pilot. He ends up alone in a dogfight with an X-wing, destroys it, and crashes on a planet before Imperial forces retrieve him. He states that the war is not yet over. Two skins based on the short's ships, called the Var-Shaa set, were added to the game's pre-order bonuses.

• 5. Scores and Sales

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  Critics compared Star Wars: Squadrons to the Rogue Squadron games released in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That comparison carried weight among space combat fans. Review aggregator Metacritic categorized the response as generally favorable.

  PC Gamer gave the game 83 out of 100. That review praised the combat and flight mechanics but criticized the limited story choices and underdeveloped characters. Game Informer awarded 8.25 out of 10, praising the multiplayer while noting that the single-player campaign struggles to hit the target. Push Square scored it 6 out of 10, acknowledging the flight mechanics but calling the experience short on excitement and content.

  In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 5,114 physical copies in its first week, placing it twelfth among retail games in the country that week. The following week, October 5 through October 11, it was 28th in Japan with 1,972 copies sold. In the United Kingdom, the game was the second-best-selling retail game and the top-selling digital game in its opening week. Switzerland placed it third among all games for the same period.

  On PlayStation 4 in the United States and Canada, the game was the second-most-downloaded title in October 2020. In Europe, it ranked third for the same month. By the end of October, digital sales had surpassed 1.1 million copies. In November 2020, it fell to 18th among PS4 downloads in the United States and Canada.

  The Game Audio Network Guild Awards honored it with the Music of the Year prize. At The Game Awards 2020, it earned a nomination for Best VR/AR. The PlayStation.Blog 2020 Game of the Year Awards named it the Best PS VR Experience outright.