Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment made it official today that the companies are teaming up with Lucasfilm Games for three brand new Star Wars titles. However, anyone who was hoping that Star Wars Battlefront 3 was finally going to get announced were likely disappointed as the door is now reportedly closed on that game getting made anytime soon.
There have been rumors of the next installment in the Battlefront wing of Star Wars games for a few years now, thanks in large part to Battlefront 2 gaining popularity as little tweaks and additions were made long after release. However, rumors that EA was willing to walk away from the franchise have been going on almost as long. While the announcements on Tuesday didn't officially end any chance of Star Wars Battlefront 3 eventually being made, it certainly seemed to indicate that Electronic Arts isn't interested in keeping the IP going.
On Tuesday morning, EA announced that it's tasking Respawn with working on three new Star Wars games including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 2. Although it wasn't an official announcement, VentureBeat reported that while Respawn is working on games that aren't Battlefront 3, DICE, the studio that did the first two games, is also not going to be tasked with any kind of next installment in the series.
Those close to the situation have reportedly told the website that EA is actually shifting all of its Star Wars projects to Respawn. That means that outside of these three new projects, it doesn't appear it wants to work on any other entries in that universe anytime soon. In fact in some regards it appears to be handing the franchise over entirely to the Titanfall developer.
The Apex Legends studio will be the lead team on both Fallen Order 2 and a yet unnamed first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe. However, it will be overseeing the third game in more of a support role with the newly created Bit Reactor being the primary developers for a Star Wars strategy game.
While the report that EA is now out of the Battlefront 3 business isn't official, as the company still hasn't given a solid answer one way or the other, the report seems to confirm rumors that have indeed revolved around it for almost a year, if not more. Of course, there is hope that while it won't be branded with the Battlefront name, the FPS shooter Respawn is working on with have a robust multiplayer mode considering its Titanfall and Apex Legends bona fides.
Source: VentureBeat
