Lots of bad news was coming out of Electronic Arts after the company decided to lay off a large number of people. This resulted in the closure of legendary game studio BioWare, which developed multiple classic role-playing games for the publisher. But another shift with EA could be the news that Star Wars fans have been looking for.
In a statement shared with EA employees, and reported on by Variety, Electronic Arts announced new changes to its portfolio of titles in the near future. The statement was sent to EA employees from president and chief studios officer Cam Weber, along with president and COO David Tinson. The two of them mention that studios DICE and Respawn Entertainment will collaborate on a future project, but didn’t share specific details.
While they did not say the name of the project in the statement, multiple sources for Variety confirmed that the project is Star Wars Battlefront 3. This comes after rumors and subsequent reports about DICE collaborating with another studio on the third Star Wars Battlefront game. However, previous information about the project was speculated to have Bungie, the studio behind the Destiny series and Halo, in talks to be part of the project, not Respawn Entertainment.
Electronic Arts
“In addition to our future Battlefield titles, we’ll be bringing together our Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project that will help us achieve that ambition. We can’t wait to share more when the time comes. We’re also continuing to invest heavily in Apex over the next few years by introducing brand new gameplay modes in multiplayer, and other new experiences, to expand the universe.”
Since then, EA’s statement to its employees have effectively put rumors about any involvement from Bungie out to pasture. Both Cam and David also mention in their statement the difficulty of making a decision on closing BioWare, as well as what franchises will take priority from EA’s catalog of titles.
The release of Star Wars Battlefront 2 was rocky in the beginning. The game faced controversy over the implementation of loot box features, which drew heavy criticism from players. The issue became large enough to draw ire from politicians in multiple countries, before it was effectively removed in a later update.
Since then, Star Wars fans have heavily played Star Wars Battlefront 2 on consoles and PC. And ever since, they’ve wanted to see a third game made. It looks like now things may be coming together for Electronic Arts to make that happen.
