Ahead of an official EA announcement, Kotaku has gone forward with major Star Wars gaming news. The most troubled game in the EA and Star Wars deal, which was signed in 2013, has been canceled.

The game in question was once codenamed "Ragtag" while in development with wholly owned EA subsidiary Visceral Games. That changed in late 2017 with a formal announcement of that studio's closure, along with the game's assets and development being primarily handed over to the EA Vancouver studio. This handover was officially described as "a significant change" to the in-development game due to "fundamental shifts in the marketplace."

Kotaku's Tuesday report alleges that the resulting, rebooted Star Wars game, which had been built as an "open-world" adventure, has since been canceled. The report, from Jason Schreier, cites "three sources," but it does not confirm an exact timeline of the cancellation. Schreier says that EA has neither offered its own news post nor responded to Kotaku's questions.

Little was known about the shape of "Ragtag" after it had been taken over by EA Vancouver beyond the fact that its development shift included the departure of former project lead Amy Hennig . Hennig did not confirm at that time whether that departure was voluntary. Reports about Visceral's demise included a hefty amount of blame to go around, from issues with Hennig's leadership to constant shuffling of EA employees and assets dedicated to the game.

EA has remained mum on other Star Wars games in its portfolio, which, as of press time, only includes an announced game in development from Titanfall creator Respawn Entertainment. That game, currently titled Jedi: Fallen Order, received nothing more than a lip-service mention at the studio's E3 2018 presentation, which confirmed that its events will take place between the film series' Episode III and IV and will star "a surviving Padawan."

[Update, January 16: EA issued a statement in response to Kotaku's article on Wednesday morning, and it's the kind of carefully worded "clarification" that neither confirms nor denies the story Kotaku reported on Tuesday. It reads:

"There’s been speculation overnight about one of our Star Wars projects. As a natural part of the creative process, the great work by our team in Vancouver continues and will evolve into future Star Wars content and games. We’re fully committed to making more Star Wars games, we’re very excited about Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from Respawn, and we’ll share more about our new projects when the time is right."

Kotaku's Jason Schreier offered his own updates about the Star Wars game in question, based on information gathered from further inside sources: that the development team in question transitioned to work on "a smaller-scale Star Wars project." This game, unlike the open-world game in question, would be more likely to ship in 2020, which EA wanted as part of its longer-term development road map. Kotaku also confirmed the game in question was codenamed Orca and would have let players choose to control either a scoundrel or bounty hunter "who could explore various open-world planets and work with different factions across the Star Wars universe."]