Quantic Dream is hard at work on Star Wars Eclipse, a new adventure game set in the High Republic era of Star Wars – a golden age of Jedi hundreds of years before the birth of Anakin Skywalker. While a lavish teaser trailer paints a thrilling picture of the game’s setting, details are still scarce.

During a recent interview at G-Star in South Korea, director, writer and Quantic Dream founder David Cage told IGN Japan that Star Wars Eclipse is "the most ambitious project of our studio." While he did not go into detail about the game, he gave us some new insights to what we can expect.

Among other things, Cage reiterates that Star Wars Eclipse will be markedly different from Detroit: Become Human, which released on PlayStation 4 back in 2018 and PC the year after. In particular, Detroit: Become Human was more about "anticipation" than sci-fi, imagining a near future in which androids become sentient.

"We spent a lot of time trying to imagine our world 10, 15, 20 years from now – what would the technology be like? Do we believe that androids would be part of our societies?" Cage explains. "I think Star Wars is a very different setting – it's far, far away, as you know. So it's something different."

Cage says that Quantic Dream learned a lot from Detroit: Become Human, calling it the studio's "most accomplished game overall" and the "best implementation we could make of the vision we had 25 years ago about how to tell a story where the player is the hero." But that doesn't mean that Quantic Dream will run it all back for Star Wars Eclipse.

"Star Wars is not going to be a skin of Detroit. The two games will be very different, very different, although we will also of course use what we learned. But it's not going to be a copycat by any means; it's going to be a very different experience," Cage says.

First announced back in 2021, Star Wars: Eclipse has remained largely a mystery since its striking first reveal. Earlier this year, Quantic Dream quashed rumors that it had been delayed and was suffering development trouble, noting that it had yet to announce a release date. In a subsequent interview, Quantic Dream CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said that Eclipse would retain Quantic Dream's fundamentals despite being an action-adventure game at heart.

'A mutual respect'

Quantic Dream, for its part, has been in the news quite a bit since 2018 due to toxic workplace allegations — allegations that Cage has strongly denied. In August, NetEase announced that it was acquiring Quantic Dream, and the studio has since revealed Parallel Studio's Under The Waves in a bid to expand its publishing label.

Cage says that NetEase alleviates the "struggle for resources" faced by many studios, and that the publisher provides access to "tons of technologies" that are of interest to Quantic Dream, including machine learning and advanced AI.

Quantic Dream joins a number of Japanese studios under the NetEase umbrella, including Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi's new studio. Talking about what it's like to work with these new students, Cage describes feelings of "mutual respect" and cultural connections between France and Japan.

"I think in Japan, also, there's this very strong interest for storytelling in games. And Detroit has been a big success in Japan, with a lot of support from the fans and very high sales figures for a non-Japanese game. So we're really, really proud of this," Cage says.

Talking about the ongoing work on Star Wars: Eclipse, Cage says that the original opporunity came together "very, very quickly," and that the studio didn't have a specific story in mind ahead of time. Cage himself is a fan of the franchise, being about 10-years-old when the original movie was released.

"They became part of our culture, and part of our consciousness somehow, and the creative ideas that we had were also inspired by this film, along with some others," Cage says. "And when we had the opportunity to potentially contribute to such a monument of pop culture, it's like a dream come true. So we didn't hesitate for a second, and we just jumped in. It's just a very exciting project. And it is the most ambitious project of our studio, for sure."

In the meantime, Quantic Dream continues to keep specific details about the project under wraps, saying "there is a schedule" and that the studio is waiting for the right moment to announce something new.

"It's the first time we've worked on a franchise, but we are approaching it with the same passion as if it was our own franchise – there is no difference for us. Same passion, same creative ambition, same everything," Cage says.

Star Wars: Eclipse has not revealed a release date or platforms and is not expected to release until 2024 at the earliest. While you wait, check out every other upcoming Star Wars game currently in development.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Interview by Daniel Robson of IGN Japan.

If you’re expecting any of Quantic Dream’s cinematic games to jump to the big screen, don’t. Company president David Cage says the studio isn’t actively pursuing selling the rights to its games for movie adaptations.

But that doesn’t mean Quantic Dream is ignoring movies and TV altogether. Cage says he’s actively following the rise of interactive TV, similar to what Netflix did with Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch.

“[I]f it’s about selling the rights to one of our games to a movie company so they make a movie, it’s not necessarily something we’re actively pursuing,” says Cage in an interview with IGN Japan.

However, Cage says whether Quantic Dream is interested in the TV medium is a separate question entirely. “It’s also interesting to see what Netflix is doing and what other people are doing, experimenting with interactive TV shows. Because it’s really mainstream, it’s about talking to non-gamers, to anyone, and giving them access to the possibility to change the course of the story based on their choices.”

Cage calls this a “simplified version” of the games Quantic Dream already makes but the appeal lies in the chance of reaching a new audience on a new platform with a different interface. But while the interest is there, Cage says “there’s no concrete plan right now with all these things, it’s more like things we keep looking at.”

Still, Cage says Netflix’s attempts at interactive TV are exciting and that “there is a future for interactive storytelling in television.”

Quantic Dream is likely not focusing on movies and TV given it is currently developing the Star Wars game, Star Wars Eclipse, a branching action-adventure game set in the High Republic era. Focusing on multiple protagonists, players will make meaningful choices that affect the storyline.

Star Wars Eclipse was announced at the 2021 Game Awards but has yet to receive an official release date.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Interview by Daniel Robson of IGN Japan.