This year’s amazing Star Wars Celebration recently wrapped up in Japan. It’s always an incredible event for Star Wars fans, but this year was especially great for gamers. We got the surprise announcement of a brand new game called Star Wars Zero Company. There was even a really slick trailer that gave a good look at the gameplay, which seems to be very much like the classic turn-based strategy title that is at the top of everyone’s list, the always great XCOM.

We often hear about XCOM clones that closely mimic but don’t have the same feeling or expertise as XCOM. We have reviewed many of those over the years, and they mostly always fall well short of expectations. However, I don’t think that this will be the case with Star Wars Zero Company. Developer Bit Reactor is made up of quite a few former members of the Firaxis team who worked on XCOM, which gives me great hope for the future launch of Zero Company next year.

Moving on to the announcement trailer, we find the story’s characters fighting in the shadow of the Clone Wars. There is a mixture of different types on the team including Jedi, Mandalorian, droids, and an alien of some sort. The assault team lands in a drop ship all too familiar to those who are XCOM fans. The limited gameplay we get to see is pretty amazing and gives us a good idea of what we can expect. Overall, for a title that is not slated to be released until next year, it is looking really great already. Keep an eye out for this one!

These niche (as in focused on unique parts of the universe) titles have really been top notch over these past few years. For example, Star Wars: Outlaws may have had a rocky start, but it has earned a lot of fans and great reviews, including here at GiN. There is also the Star Wars: Squadrons series for those who enjoy ship combat. Overall, if you are a Star Wars fan and a gamer, the force is with you these days.

Sadly, I did not hear anything from the Star Wars Celebration about a Total War conversion, so those rumors may not have been true. But who knows? If there ever is a Total War version of Star Wars, I may have to resign and you will probably never hear from me again. That is hyperbole, of course. But there really hasn’t been a solid strategy title set in that universe since Star Wars: Empire at War, although we are at least getting tactical combat with Zero Company.

In other amazing news, it was announced that a brand new movie called Star Wars: Starfighter with Ryan Gosling will be out around 2027. Potentially, this could lead to a sequel to Star Wars: Squadrons where EA would be able to tell another, hopefully longer story. I can’t see anyone making a movie named after a video game and then not following up with another title for gamers to play. But overall, it’s great to see Star Wars owner Disney committing to video games as well as movies.

So, the Star Wars news seems to be quite good for gamers. I do wish I could have been there in Japan this year for the Star Wars Celebration, but I did get to spend time at another convention recently. It was called Sekaicon 2025, and this was its very first year. It was a lot of fun, and you can see all of my show coverage right here on GiN. I also plan on reporting live from at least three more conventions this year, so stay tuned for that as I can’t wait to share those with you.

Until then, may the force of Star Wars games continue to be with us all!