'Star Wars: Battlefront': How EA and DICE's DLCs Are Shaping The 2017 Sequel

When “Star Wars: Battlefront” was first released back in November 2015, it was praised for its multiplayer gameplay but was heavily criticized for what it lacked. Developer DICE has since expanded the game through DLCs and add-ons to turn it into what fans truly wanted, something that publisher EA is planning to address in next year’s sequel.

“The reception was mixed,” DICE producer Paul Keslin told Eurogamer. “We've been listening to a lot of the feedback since launch and even post-launch as we've been adding new things. We've announced the next game that's coming out - those are things we're look to tackle in the future. We can't always get everything in the current game, but in the future we want to hit those things and give the fans what they're after.”

One of the major complaints about “Star Wars: Battlefront” was that players weren’t able to seamlessly switch between on-ground combat to aerial combat. "The Rogue One: Scarif" DLC for the game, which just came out earlier this week, is the closest thing to deliver that same experience, albeit the other way around.

The previous "Death Star" DLC offered that same experience, but "Scarif" made the transition between those types of combats faster by shortening the loading screens through cutscenes. That being said, the latest DLC also seems to be the product that was shaped by fan feedback.

When Keslin was asked whether seamless transitions between ground to air combat will be happening to the “Battlefront” sequel, he responded by saying that he currently doesn’t know. He further explained that it will depend on how big the in-game world will be citing that making an authentic look for the game at 60fps is “very taxing.”

The next issue that he tackled was the lack of a single-player campaign mode on “Star Wars: Battlefront,” and how they tried to remedy that through the "Death Star" and "Rogue One" DLCs. “How do we add a bit of narrative to the multiplayer game? We know that players want that, we're not able to give them a full-fledged campaign post-launch for ‘Battlefront,’ but how can we scratch that itch a bit? It's been received okay — I think some people appreciate it. We're trying to address as many things as we can,” Keslin said. He also added that that DICE is working closely with Motive Studios for the sequel to make sure the campaign will be cohesive with the multiplayer experience.

EA has already confirmed that the 2017 sequel to “Star Wars: Battlefront” will indeed have a single-player campaign, but details about it have been kept under wraps. EA Studios’ Patrick Soderlund admitted back in May that DICE didn’t make a campaign mode for the 2015 game because they wanted to get it out just in time for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

EA’s vice president of investor relations Chris Evenden also addressed the same issue recently during a conference this past Wednesday. “Certainly, we heard the feedback,” Evenden said, according to GameSpot. “There were some comments around depth and single-player campaign. So we are aware of that feedback...but I wouldn't want to announce exactly how we've acted on that.”

“Star Wars: Battlefront 2” is slated to be released some time during the fall of 2017. The game will most likely come out just before the release of “Star Wars Episode VIII.”