Grave Gamer News & Views — star wars: battlefront

DICE and EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront ‘Well into Development’

“Troubled” is the kind word thrown around when describing the tumultuous experience LucasArts and multiple third-party devs had getting a sequel to 2005’s Battlefront II off of the ground.

With LucasArts recently disbanded in every capacity save for its name and the Star Wars franchise tucked deep within the confines of Disney’s money lined pocket, this long dormant brand returns to the galaxy as, simply, Star Wars: Battlefront, a DICE production; first in a line of several planned Star Wars games to be published by the EA empire.

How far, far away are we from seeing this licensed shooter on next-gen consoles?  Hard to say, but EA Games Label prez, Frank Gibeau, says the title is headlong into development under the same team at DICE that stitched together the Battlefield series.  Likewise, expect the new Battlefront to have Frostbite 3 burning at its core.

“We showed 22 seconds of where we’re going with it and the fan response was very positive.  The DICE team is well into development on that product already, so we feel very bullish about our shooter rotation over the next several years,” said Gibeau during an earnings call sometime after all 22 seconds of the game’s E3 debut.

There’s no doubt EA’s funding and DICE’s collective of talent can finally bring Battlefront to the homestretch.  DICE wouldn’t be my first pick for Star Wars, but that doesn’t make them any less of an inspired choice.

My only concern is whether or not old Battlefront III assets are being used or, barring that, even being kept in mind.  Before Free Radical’s attempt on BFIII went tits up, they managed to incorporate some pretty imaginative ideas – and that was on current gen tech.  The one-two combo of next-gen hardware and Frostbite 3 means expectations put on Battlefront’s shoulders rest right at “amazing” (as if the Battlefront name hadn’t already forced that precedent).