At least three Star Wars games have been cancelled since EA secured publishing rights for the franchise from Disney, including a recently revealed cancelled Battlefront spin-off game. EA has reportedly considered a number of different factors for each Star Wars game cancellation, but the decisions mostly come down to timing.

Many fans were skeptical when EA, notorious for being one of the most hated companies in gaming, first took the Star Wars reigns. The publisher began its Star Wars run with the unexciting Battlefront in 2015, and things began to look bad for future Star Wars games when, in the midst of Battlefront 2's loot box controversy, EA announced it was shutting down developer Visceral Games and cancelling the studio's single-player Star Wars game, "Project Ragtag." The project was then transferred to EA Vancouver, but that developer's open-world Star Wars game was cancelled, too.

Related: 20 Video Game Franchises That EA Has Ruined

Now, a third cancelled game shows a pattern of flawed Star Wars game development under EA. Here's why all three of EA's cancelled Star Wars projects were scrapped, including the Battlefront spin-off, Visceral's Ragtag, and EA Vancouver's open-world game.

Why So Many EA Star Wars Games Have Been Cancelled

Iden Versio in Star Wars Battlefront 2

According to reporting by Kotaku, the latest Star Wars game, code-named "Viking," was meant to be a Battlefront spin-off with open-world elements. Developers EA Vancouver and Criterion began work on the spin-off after EA Vancouver's previous Star Wars game was cancelled, but the studios ran into a problem of "too many cooks," as one anonymous source told Kotaku. As is the case with many game cancellations (such as that of Blizzard's cancelled StarCraft: Ghost), there were simply too many ideas being tossed around and not enough focus, leading to stalled development. EA was hoping to release Viking around the PS5 and Xbox Series X launch, so, realizing development was too troubled to make that release window, it scrapped the project last year.

Ironically, development on Viking was started because the previous game, EA Vancouver's "Orca," was also taking too long. According to a report from Kotaku at the time, Orca would have followed a smuggler-type character, exploring open-world planets in the Star Wars galaxy. Similar to Viking, EA saw its release schedule and decided it needed something sooner, so Orca was cancelled in favor of the smaller Viking. With Viking cancelled, too, EA Motive is now working on yet another small Star Wars game - presumably even smaller than Viking, if EA wants it to release it anytime soon.

The first iteration of EA's cancelled Star Wars game, Visceral's Ragtag, was perhaps its most promising. Led by Uncharted director Amy Hennig, Ragtag was a single-player, linear adventure game, not unlike Uncharted in the Star Wars universe. When it announced Ragtag's cancellation, EA said it wasn't something "players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time," implying the publisher may have wanted a live-service game - or at least something with more replayability than a linear story game. While Ragtag was apparently closer to finished than many thought, this reason was compelling enough for EA to cancel it and move its assets to EA Vancouver for Orca.

Related: Visceral's 'Star Wars' Game Would Have Been 'In The Style of Uncharted'

What's next for EA's Star Wars games is uncertain. While there's the reported smaller game from Motive and a Jedi: Fallen Order sequel (indicated by Respawn Entertainment job listings) on the way, it's unclear if more Star Wars games will come afterwards. Perhaps Respawn's success with a single-player Star Wars game will convince EA that games like Ragtag could be worth releasing, but for now, it seems Respawn has a monopoly on those kinds of experiences.

Next: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Hit The High-End Of EA's Sales Projections