In 2021, the mobile game developer Zynga announced that it was working on a new PvP hero shooter calledStar Wars: Hunters. Developed in collaboration with Zynga subsidiary NaturalMotion Games,Star Wars: Hunterswas presented as an alternative toOverwatchandApex Legends. Much like those games, it was a free-to-play, team-based multiplayer shooter, but instead of being in first-person, it could only be played from a third-person perspective. Zynga and NaturalMotion were originally targeting a 2021 release forStar Wars: Hunters, but, due to several delays, it would not launch until June 04, 2025.
Despite being based on anincredibly popular franchise,Star Wars: Hunters didn’t receive much attention from mainstream media outlets when it first came out. The game did not get a lot of reviews from professional critics, and the few it did receive weren’t glowing. With that said,Star Wars: Hunters' user review scores were considerably more positive. On the App Store, for example, the game received a 4.5/5 rating from more than 1.7k reviewers. Although it had its fans,Star Wars: Hunterswas unable to attract a large-enough playerbase in the long run.
Star Wars: Hunters' Failure Isn’t Proof that a Star Wars Hero Shooter Can’t Work
Star Wars: Hunters is Being Shut Down Just a Year After Its Release
Earlier this month, Zynga and NaturalMotion announced thatStar Wars: Hunterswould be permanently shutting downon July 01, 2025, just one year after it initially came out. This decision came as a bit of a surprise to some fans; even though the game wasn’t that popular, it still seemed like it had some life left in it. Zynga was actively developing major new content for the game until only recently, and it was even planning to bring it to PC later this year. However, in spite of the fact thatStar Wars: Hunterscurrently has a store page on Steam, the port will never be released. Zynga didn’t even giveStar Wars: Huntersthe opportunity to attract new players on PC before pulling the plug.
Sadly,Star Wars: Huntersisn’t the only recent live-service game that has had a shockingly short lifespan. Over the last few months, several other online-only titles, such asSpectre DivideandConcord, have been shut down just months, if not weeks, after their initial launches. AlthoughStar Wars: Hunterswasn’t able to last very long, its failure doesn’t necessarily indicate that there isn’t an audience forStar Warshero shooters in the industry. Zynga’s ill-fated project was a solid enough game, but there were several aspects that significantly held it back from fulfilling its true potential.
Limited Platform Availability and a Lack of Recognizable Characters Held Star Wars: Hunters Back from Success
One of the biggest problems withStar Wars: Hunterswas that it wasn’t available on all platforms. The game made its debut exclusively on Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.Star Wars: Hunters' planned PC portwas never released, and any potential Xbox and PlayStation versions were never announced. Live-service titles likeStar Wars: Hunterstypically benefit a lot from being accessible to as large an audience as possible, so the fact that Zynga didn’t prioritize getting the game on all platforms was a big oversight.
In addition to this,Star Wars: Huntersalso suffered from a lack of popular characters. All the playable heroes in the game were created specifically for this title, and they had never really appeared in any priorStar Warsmedia. The absence of recognizable faces withinStar Wars: Hunters' roster of heroesdeprived the game of that distinctiveStar Warstouch.Star Wars: Huntersshould have appealed to casualStar Warsfans by including playable characters that they were actually familiar with, like Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker. If Zynga had played its cards properly, aStar Warsmultiplayer shooter with a cast of heroes like this could have been as successful asMarvel Rivals.
