Star Wars Jedi Survivor: is game on PS4 and Xbox One - EA new current and last gen update release date

Despite a number of technical issues plaguing it at launch, when Star Wars Jedi: Survivor released a few months ago, it was one of the most impressive looking games of the year.

The assured action-adventure set in the galaxy far, far away told an original, epic Star Wars story, and perfectly conveyed the art style, sounds and feel of the space saga, making it one of the must-play games of 2023.

Developer Respawn Entertainment were aided in their realisation of the game by deciding to skip less powerful, "last-gen" games consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 - machines that would struggle to run the game at all, let alone as relatively smoothly as newer platforms can.

But, months after launch, publisher EA has announced that it is "committed" to bringing the game to those older machines in some form as part of a call to discuss its Q1 2023 earnings.

The company will "harness the community’s passion and capitalise on key Star Wars franchise moments to drive continued engagement for this incredible game."

Why is Jedi: Survivor launching on last-gen consoles?

As to why EA may want to make the effort - and it could be an effort - to bring the game to older consoles, the reason is simple.

Despite the current-gen (Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5) having been in place for nearly three years, various factors have combined to make this one of the slowest generational transitions in history.

Economic woes and cost-of-living crises across the globe have left gamers more cash-strapped and less likely to splash out on new consoles, and the machines themselves have been relatively hard to come by, thanks to production line issues and pandemic hangovers.

That means there are still millions of players around the world happily playing on "old" games consoles, and that's not likely to change all that soon. So, it makes sense that EA would want to open Jedi Survivor up to that untapped market, potentially shifting millions more units as it does so.

Indeed, EA's CEO Andrew Wilson said the decision to bring the game to last-gen platforms is tied to "community demand", and "thanks to the strength of this legendary franchise."

How will the game run on last-gen consoles?

Whether or not the game will run in a satisfying state is anyone's guess at this point. As mentioned, though graphically impressive, Jedi Survivor ran with unsteady framerates and other visual issues at launch - especially on the PC side, where technical bugs at times made it near unplayable.

That was on newer consoles, and with less technical power under the hood, the team in charge of porting the game backwards to the Xbox One and PS4 will have their work cut out for them.

That's not to say it can't be done. Hogwarts Legacy - another graphically impressive, ambitious blockbuster game - released last-gen versions a few months after the launch of its flagship current-gen iteration, and while sacrifices obviously had to be made, the game ran well on older machines, at least on par with newer machines.

When can I play it?

As of yet, there's been no official word on when the last-gen version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may be released.

But given that the news came out as part of a Q1 earnings call, could it be reasonable to assume the publisher is eyeing a release date between January and March of next year...?