Following his exit from Sony's Santa Monica Studio, Stig Asmussen, who had previously directed God of War III, joined Respawn Entertainment in 2014. He served as the studio's game director, leading the studio's second development team while the first development team was working on the Titanfall games. Prior to the game's development, Respawn discussed the possibility of making a Star Wars game with publisher Electronic Arts (EA), who controlled an exclusive license from Lucasfilm to develop new Star Wars games. This plan did not go through. When this plan did not go through, Respawn began development on an original game concept, and EA felt the project could work well as a Star Wars game. As owner of the Star Wars intellectual property, Lucasfilm was protective of the Jedi as a "sacred" part of the franchise, and encouraged Respawn to make a shooter game about a smuggler or bounty hunter. However, Asmussen pushed back with his vision, convincing Lucasfilm to focus on a game with Jedi and lightsaber combat. Lucasfilm would continue to check in with Asmussen and Respawn, ensuring the game's fidelity to the Star Wars setting. Visually, the game was heavily inspired by Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story. The team also took inspirations from Star Wars Rebels, which took place in the same period.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was directed by Stig Asmussen, who joined Respawn in 2014. The game began development as an original title unrelated to Star Wars, but Electronic Arts felt the action would work well as a Star Wars game, convincing Lucasfilm to authorize and consult on the project. The game's visuals were influenced by Rogue One and Star Wars Rebels, while the combat and levels were inspired by Metroid Prime, Dark Souls, and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. The game's voice cast includes Cameron Monaghan as Cal Kestis and Debra Wilson as his mentor Cere. Ben Burtt provided the voice for Cal's companion droid BD-1, while Forest Whitaker reprised his role from Rogue One as Saw Gerrera. The music, composed by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London.
The project was revealed by publisher Electronic Arts to be a third-person action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe in May 2016. Publisher Electronic Arts announced the game at E3 2018, At E3 2019, Electronic Arts showcased a 15-minute demo of the game. The game's development was completed on October 18, 2019, with Respawn confirming it had been declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for duplication and release. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on November 15, 2019, a month before the theatrical release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order marked EA's return to Steam, eight years after releasing games exclusively on its own Origin platform. The game was released in two editions: a Standard Edition, and a Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition featured exclusive skins for BD-1 and the Stinger Mantis, a digital artbook, and a "Director's Cut" behind the scenes video. One of these cosmetics that were available through pre-ordering the game, the orange lightsaber crystal, was later made available through an update to all players. At launch, the game received criticisms for its abundance of software bugs. Respawn once considered delaying the title to further polish the game, but ultimately decided to release the game during the holiday season.
In Japan, the PlayStation 4 version of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order sold 26,761 units within its first week on sale, which made it the fifth best-selling retail game of the week. In the United Kingdom, it was the second best-selling retail game during its first week on sale, behind Pokémon Sword and Shield, with 66% of sales being for the PlayStation 4 version and the remaining 34% for the Xbox One version. It had the fourth most successful UK launch for a video game physical release in 2019. In the United States, it was the second best-selling game in November and December 2019, only behind the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot. With only two months of sales, it was still the sixth best-selling game of the year in the US, and Respawn's most profitable premium title of all-time.
In September 2019, Marvel Comics published a tie-in comic prequel series, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Dark Temple. Written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Paolo Villanelli, it follows Cere and her master Eno Cordova as they explore the planet Ontotho. In December 2019, Respawn added an outfit based on BD-1 to its online battle royale video game Apex Legends. Hasbro produced three figures in the Star Wars: The Black Series range for Cal Kestis (and BD-1), the Second Sister and the Purge Stormtrooper, with this selection of designs being adapted by Funko into Funko Pop! figures. Starting from March 2022, Cal's lightsaber hilt can be purchased at Dok-Ondar's Den of Antiquities in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland Resort, and Disney's Hollywood Studios after winning a fan poll in 2020. At Star Wars Celebration 2022, Lego revealed a BD-1 Lego model based on the game.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in November 2019, and for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in June 2021. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the game's combat, characters, performance, and world design, though it received criticisms for the technical issues at release. It sold over 10 million units by 2020. It was nominated for several end-of-the-year accolades, including Best Action/Adventure Game at The Game Awards 2020. A sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, was released in April 2023.
A Stadia version was released on November 24, 2020. A photo mode for the game was added in December 2019. On January 12, 2021, a free update was released that improved performance when running the game with backwards compatibility on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Native versions for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S were released on June 11, 2021. The new versions improved the game's technical performance and stability, added support for higher resolutions, and vastly improved loading times. The update was free to those who owned either the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One versions of the game. A free update with new cosmetics, game modes, and combat challenges was released on May 4, 2020, coinciding with Star Wars Day.
With the addition of a Star Wars Day update released in 2020, players can access the Meditation Arena through the meditation circles. The arena offers combat challenges where the player fights waves of enemies based on locations from the main game. Completing a challenge awards the player with up to three stars, based on the player's health. These stars can be used to unlock cosmetic changes for BD-1. The Meditation Arena includes a battle grid, where players can select their abilities and opponents for a custom challenge.
Electronic Arts confirmed that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had the fastest-selling digital launch for any Star Wars game within its first two weeks on sale. The game sold over 8 million units by the end of January 2020, exceeding EA's expectations. Over 10 million units were sold by the end of March 2020. By June 2021, the game had attracted over 20 million players.
Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton served as the game's composers. The former had previously composed the scores for Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefront while the latter had collaborated with the studio on the Titanfall, Uncharted, and Apex Legends. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of London. According to the game's audio director Nick Laviers, the game's music was designed to evoke those from the original film trilogy, being both "futuristic" while having a "1970s, warm and familiar technology vibe". Haab described the score of the game as "dark", with some songs bordering on "gothic horror". The team felt that Cal's theme was challenging to create, since they did not want to foreshadow too much of his character development and his heroic journey. Haab intentionally avoided listening to established Star Wars music in order to create something new for Fallen Order. A soundtrack album for the game was released on August 21, 2020. It is over 3 hours long and it was produced by the composers Barton and Haab, Nick Laviers, Alan Meyerson, and Electronic Arts President of Music Steve Schnur. Mongolian folk metal band The Hu wrote and recorded a song, "Sugaan Essena", which featured prominently in the game. The song lyrics were written in Mongolian, then translated into a fictional Star Wars language.
In January 2022, Respawn confirmed it was developing a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order, with Stig Asmussen returning as director. Titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, it was unveiled in May and was released in April 2023 for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. Respawn collaborated with Lucasfilm Games for this sequel, which is set five years after Fallen Order.
A tie-in novel titled Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars was released on March 7, 2023. The book was written by Sam Maggs, and bridges the events between Fallen Order and Survivor.