Battlefront 2 to deliver “that single-player element”; no revival for 1313

Some new tidbits on Battlefront 2 recently dropped, this time from EA’s General Manager of Star Wars, Justin McCully.

Speaking in Channel 33’s Achievement Oriented podcast that came out yesterday, McCully touched on how EA wants to broaden the single-player experience in its stable of Star Wars games.

“With Battlefront, the focus of that first game was really to nail the core multiplayer experience of what DICE does great,” he said. “That was the strategy of that title and now as we expand in the universe, we have a better sense of what characters are coming into play, what stories we can tell, what stories are maybe being told in a film versus a game. That’s where we’ve really ramped up the interaction with story, to bring those games to market.”

This focus on single-player content will also carry over to Battlefront 2.

“We heard the fans loud and clear that the multiplayer was great, but it wasn’t enough and they wanted that complete package,” McCully said. “So the team has been very focused on delivering that single-player element.”

Note that McCully did not actually reference a campaign, which has still yet to be officially announced for Battlefront 2. However, his wording that ties together single-player and storytelling certainly seems to imply a campaign is coming. It’s also the first outright mention that Battlefront 2 will see a bolstered single-player offering.

Previously, employees at EA hinted that the team had heard feedback regarding Battlefront’s lack of single-player content, but nothing had been confirmed up until now.

McCully also didn’t confirm that Motive Studios was brought into the fold to enhance the single-player aspect of Battlefront. Still, considering how McCully praised DICE for their multiplayer contributions, it’s probably safe to assume that Motive is indeed working on single-player content.

McCully also narrowed down the Battlefront’s sequel release date.

“We’ve publicly announced that there is another Battlefront game in development coming around holiday of 2017,” he said.

While EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen implied back in November that the game would arrive late-2017, McCully’s statement hints at a slightly tighter release window. Assuming he’s talking about US holidays, the potential months for release would be either November or December of next year.

McCully also discussed a number of topics, including Star Wars’ role in esports:

There’s nothing I can talk about today related to Star Wars. It is obviously a space that continues to grow and we know that many of our fans are interested in not only films and TV, but also esports. It’s a growing, growing place where people are spending a lot of their time.

Definitely interesting words here. Jorgensen previously said that Battlefront “could also be open for esports”, but nothing really came of it on EA’s side. Will certainly be interesting to see how EA handles its Star Wars properties with regards to esports in the future.

On third-person in Battlefront:

The character models are so strong. From the very beginning, the heroes that you play in Battlefront were always third-person. From day one, that was how we wanted people to experience it and, as we went through development, we realized the same things applies to the Rebel troopers and the stormtroopers. These models were almost photo-accurate and, competitive advantage aside, a lot of people preferred third-person. So we do offer that choice, you can switch back-and-forth in Battlefront.

While he’s talking about the current Battlefront above, I’m really happy to hear McCully’s words on third-person. Because it was a popular feature in this Battlefront, hopefully it’ll carry over into the next one. In my mind, third-person gameplay is essential for the Battlefront franchise.

Also in the podcast, Lucasfilm’s Douglas Reilly touched on the canned 1313 game, which unfortunately doesn’t have plans for a revival.

“The decade or so I’ve been here, lots of projects get killed, but we keep them and we hold on to kernels of those ideas and we might take a character from here or an environment from there,” he said. “So you might see things that maybe you didn’t even know were a part of that experience might show up in some other project down the road, but for now, there’s no plans to revive 1313.”

Despite a lack of hope for 1313, McCully promised that the future of Star Wars games will feature varied gameplay.

“There are always platforms that are better suited to handle certain genres and I think that that’s why you’ve seen with the new HD consoles over the last cycle, it’s shooters and action that do very well, but I think there’s more that we can do,” he said. “There’s more than you’re going to see from EA over the years to fulfill that entire fantasy of Star Wars that isn’t just a blaster experience or an X-Wing experience. It’s more than the sum of its parts.”

Those were the key moments for me in the podcast. However, they also discussed a bit on how to tell video game stories in the Star Wars universe and how VR relates to the future of Star Wars. Additionally, the first half of the episode was with former LucasArts president Jack Sorensen. I highly recommend heading on over to SoundCloud to listen to the full, one-hour episode.

(H/T Gamespot)

(First two images taken in Battlefront. Third image source.)