It appears that EA and DICE will not be continuing their series of Star Wars: Battlefront games, for the time being. Instead, they will focus their efforts on supporting Battlefield 2042. Earlier today, EA announced that Respawn Entertainment is currently working on three new Star Wars games, one of which is the sequel to 2019’s successful single-player action title Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
The first game EA developed under its exclusive deal with Disney to produce video games based on the Star Wars franchise was 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront, a reboot of the defunct Pandemic Studio’s classic Star Wars Battlefront series that was met with a mixed reception due to a lack of content and an overreliance on DLC. 2017’s Star Wars: Battlefront II would likewise face a firestorm of controversy over its heavy use of microtransactions, which even triggered government investigations into perceived gambling mechanics in video games. DICE would cut back on these controversial elements in later updates, with the game eventually being viewed as a much better Star Wars experience by the time EA ended its support for Battlefront II in 2020. EA previously hinted that a new Star Wars Battlefront game could come after the release of the next Battlefield, but video game journalist Tom Henderson would later claim that this title was canceled due to licensing costs back in November.
It seems that Henderson’s claim has been all but confirmed, as news site VentureBeat reports that Star Wars Battlefront III won’t be among the line of new Star Wars games being published by EA. Sources that spoke with VG 24/7 state that developer DICE will instead devote its efforts toward the Battlefield franchise, particularly in adding more content to November’s Battlefield 2024 after it was criticized for having less than past games in the series. In any case, it doesn’t seem like EA’s Star Wars Battlefront will be seeing a new entry for the time being.
Aside from the previously planned Star Wars Battlefront III being shelved, recent reports have revealed that DICE originally had plans for additional DLC for Battlefront II, including Prequel Era fan-favorites Ahsoka Tano and Assaj Ventress as playable characters and a map based on Revenge Of The Sith’s volcanic planet of Mustafar. Indeed, a data mine confirmed that these characters were referenced in Battlefront II’s source code alongside the equally popular Padme Amidala, but none of them ultimately made it into Star Wars Battlefront II.
Now, it seems that these characters won't be appearing in Star Wars Battlefront III either. EA and DICE could always return to the Star Wars: Battlefront series on a later date after today’s wave of new Star Wars games is completed, but for the time being it looks like DICE is devoting all of its efforts toward Battlefield. In the meantime, Star Wars fans have a multitude of new titles to look forward to, including Aspyr's Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake and Ubisoft’s as-of-yet untitled open-world Star Wars game.
Source: VentureBeat, VG 24/7