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The upcoming Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge release date has been announced and it is way sooner than many expected. Unveiled in a new trailer for the game released today, the VR experience will come exclusively to the Oculus platform on November 19th.

An Anthology of Batuu History

One of the features of the game is stories told by the bartender character, Seezelslak, that cover the history of Batuu. The new trailer reveals that one of those stories will be about a Jedi temple on the planet. This temple story involves a padawan and Yoda visiting, and allows the player to wield a lightsaber in VR.

What makes this reveal so interesting is how it potentially impacts the story of Savi’s Workshop and why the Gatherers are on Batuu. The presence of a Jedi temple on planet explains why an off-the-beaten-path planet like Batuu has such a special significance to adherents to the Jedi Order.

Don’t Expect to visit Oga’s

In an interview with StarWars.com, director Jose Perez III explained the purpose of the game is to tell stories about Batuu that you can’t experience in the parks. The purpose is instead to expand upon the planet’s story and give greater context to the physical location you can visit. While that may be disappointing for those who hoped to explore more of Black Spire Outpost because they can’t visit a Disney park in the US, this expanded look at Batuu is very exciting to us.

Batuu far too often appears forced into stories as a marketing push for theme park ticket sales. This game helps expand that world and give the planet greater importance in the larger Star Wars story. While the theme park will always be central to Galaxy’s Edge’s part of the narrative, being able to explore beyond the bounds of what Imagineers had space (and budget) for sounds fascinating.

The Oculus exclusive experience drops on November 19th. The Oculus Quest 2, the newest version of Oculus VR platform, is now available and comes in both $299 and $399 versions. There does exist a chance the game comes to the Playstation VR platform as well, as the recent Vader Immortal release suggests, but PSVR’s status is somewhat cloudy due to the impending release of the Playstation 5. No information on PSVR and PS5’s connection or compatibility has been unveiled as of yet.