Is EA About To Announce Star Wars Battlefront 3?
Can you hear that? It's the whoosh of lightsabers, the pew-pew of TIE fighters, and the sound of many a missed shot from a Stormtrooper. With the recent announcement that Lucasfilm Games has gone full Palpatine and been resurrected for another chance to be the overlord of Star Wars games, the former gaming giant is back and wasting no time in expanding that galaxy far, far away.
We've already had the announcement of an Indiana Jones game from Bethesda and a massive open world Star Wars title from Ubisoft, while EA Games has promised it's going to continue blasting off to Tatooine and beyond.
It's clear that the once-maligned idea of Star Wars games has been banished to the Dagobah system, meaning we're doing a Kessel Run of potential titles. As the various developers and publishers scramble to grab a piece of the sci-fi favourite, it's led to wild rumours that EA will make the next move with the announcement of Star Wars Battlefront 3. However, is this the rumour we're looking for, or is it just another Jedi mind trick?
Star Wars Battlefront 3: What's the scoop?
All the way back in 2004, LucasArts (which was a rebranded Lucasfilm Games) released Star Wars: Battlefront. The franchise boomed, and although there were plans to make a third main series entry, Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm led to LucasArts' closure and left EA DICE to reboot with Star Wars Battlefront in 2015. The new era continued with the divisive Battlefront 2 in 2017, however, there has been continuous speculation about what could come next. Although there's no concrete evidence, a new leak on Reddit (not the most accurate of sources) claims EA is getting ready to officially announce Battlefront 3.
We can't emphasise enough that all of the below needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but still, it's easy to imagine a threequel being in the works under EA's new-found Star Wars steam. According to redditor u/NotDevinsideyourhead, April 20 is one to mark in the diary. Here, they claim EA will announce Battlefront 3, which is already in development by EA DICE. With the devs hard at work on the highly anticipated Battlefield 6, it means Battlefront 3 is further down the pecking order for now. If there's any truth to the rumours, it could release in the latter half of 2023. Added to this, Battlefront 3 would "take a new direction" to "distinguish itself" from its predecessors. All in all, it's very believable but a bit of a nothing "leak".
Will we see Star Wars Battlefront 3?
It's important to note the timing and the renewed interest in the Battlefront name. Despite 2017's Battlefront 2 kick-starting that whole loot box scandal that continues to plague EA, the game tried to redeem itself with a tonne of post-release content and the "Celebration Edition" in 2019. Battlefront 2 finally released the last of its updates in April 2020 when the team was satisfied it had reached the desired number of players, however, Epic Games recently brought a whole Death Star of players to the game's servers and caused it to crash.
As part of Epic's latest giveaway, players were gifted the Celebration Edition, which came bundled with every update - including the Rise of the Skywalker content. Given the fact Epic was giving away a title that EA has largely moved on from, the publisher presumably didn't expect an influx of new players the servers couldn't cope with. Although EA has vowed to fix it, some are still reporting problems ahead of the giveaway's end tomorrow (January 21). Interestingly, Some even think the Epic giveaway was to test the waters ahead of a Battlefront 3 announcement.
Loot box scandal aside, Battlefront 2 had a lot of potential as it introduced newcomer Iden Versio alongside old favourites like Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. As well as having a unique single-player story akin to the later release of Star Wars Jedi:l Fallen Order, Battlefront 2 has a beloved multiplayer that offered up anything a Star Wars fan could want from a game.
While Star Wars: Squadrons has tried to capture some of the magic of Battlefront's dogfights and aerial attacks, most feel it's missing something that the Battlefront series had. Looking at how the galaxy is facing its own big bang in terms of movies and TV shows, expect the same with Star Wars games. Fingers crossed that Star Wars Battlefront 3 could be about to podrace into our lives
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