Many fans calmored for a third entry in the still asking for a modern third game from rebooted series developer DICE), and it turns out that work did begin on a third game, and now one of the original game's developers has explained why it never materialized, almost 20 years later. The original Star Wars Battlefront series saw critical acclaim and commercial success, leading to publisher LucasArts wanting another game quickly, but a transition to new hardware made it impossible.

Speaking to VideoGamer, Battlefront 2 designer Dan Nanni explained that Pandemic Studios did start work on a third game but were given only one year to work on it, while also transitioning to the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 generation of hardware. The first two Battlefront games were released in 2004 and 2005, with just a year in between new entries, so LucasArts wanted the same turnaround time. But that wasn't achievable, according to Nanni, with him stating: “When you’re moving to a new console it’s not as easy as saying, 'let me just make a game for it like we did for the old console.'"

The History Of Star Wars Battlefront 3

A Third Entry Seems To Be Cursed

LucasArts acquired Pandemic Studios after the release of Battlefront 2 and had a deal with Free Radical Design to make a third game. That game was canceled at around 95% completion, according to some reports. A lot of Free Radical Design's design was taken directly or heavily inspired by the groundwork that Pandemic Studios laid for a third game. After introducing space missions in the second game, Pandemic also planned to combine both space and ground combat into continuous maps, and a considerable amount of work was done on the project.

Nanni explained that if the team was "given the time, we’d have made something really special," but the team wasn’t granted the time they needed. Negotiations for Battlefront 3 then stalled, as Lucasfilm desired a Battlefront 3 to help with marketing purposes, similar to how Battlefront 2 was released around the same time as the Revenge of the Sith film.

Pandemic Studios was shut down in 2009, and Free Radical Design's Battlefront 3 was also canceled. The series would change hands to developer DICE and publisher Electronic Arts for the reboot in 2015. A third game in the rebooted trilogy was also canceled, reportedly due to licensing costs.

Our Take: We Might See A Third Game One Day

But It Might Take A Complete Design Philosophy Shift

There has been a resurgence in interest in the Star Wars franchise with the sequel trilogy, and the TV shows that followed, namely The Mandalorian and Andor. There definitely is an audience for a third game, even with the lootbox controversy and eventual redemption arc that EA's Star Wars Battlefront 2 went through. Star Wars is one of the most popular IPs in history, so of course, licensing fees for a Star Wars game are going to be high. But with other EA-published Star Wars games on the market, like Jedi Survivor and Fallen Order, a third Battlefront game is not impossible.

For the time being, it looks like EA has switched its Star Wars games' focus to single-player action-adventure games. There is a lot of competition in the multiplayer shooter genre now, especially with a lot of those titles being free-to-play. If DICE and EA could learn from their mistakes with Battlefront 2 and focus more on ion and quality instead of monetization, fans would more than likely welcome another Star Wars Battlefront title. Until that day, it looks like a third entry has been cursed from materializing.

Source: VideoGamer