EA confirms multiple eras, campaign for Battlefront 2

At an earnings call earlier today, EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed a slew of new information about this year’s Battlefront sequel.

Perhaps the biggest tidbits include the first official confirmation of a single-player campaign and the fact that the game will feature multiple eras.

“There will be new ways to play, including an all-new single-player campaign and much, much more that we are excited to share with our players in the months ahead,” Wilson said about the campaign. “[There will be] a full single-player campaign, which we are very excited about.”

As to the multiple eras, Wilson teased that alongside more locations and hero characters.

“As [the current Battlefront] continues to thrive, we have also heard our player’s desire for even more depth and progression,” he said. “Our next Star Wars Battlefront will be even bigger, taking our players into more locations, and allowing them to play with more heroes and characters across multiple Star Wars eras.”

However, Wilson didn’t explain what he meant by multiple eras. It likely the game will include at least includes the Original Trilogy and Sequel Trilogy. Unfortunately, nothing can be confirmed just yet regarding the Clone Wars era.

Previously, Battlefront’s senior producer Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir said in June: “What excites me now is bringing in more characters, more planets, environments, more eras […].” When discussing multiple eras, Wilson certainly seemed to echo her wording.

The concept art above seemingly features First Order TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers. Meanwhile, the work-in-progress shot below is of an X-Wing from the Original Trilogy.

Wilson also added: “[The next Battlefront] is going to be a big game. […] This game is going to be in more locations, more game modes, more eras, more ships, including a full single-player campaign, which is very, very exciting. We have every reason to believe we’re delivering fans exactly what they’re asking for with respect for Star Wars games.”

The comment about “more game modes” is interesting. The current Battlefront already has 14 modes, which is a fair amount. More game modes have to potential to split the community and they may also not be as fully developed. However, that’s just me speculating a bit, so we’ll have to see what the team crafts!

Wilson further confirmed that the game will release Holiday 2017 (November-December), which isn’t all that surprising based on previous comments from EA.

He also touched on the confirmation that DICE will be co-developing the title with Motive Studios and Criterion Games, saying, “To build a game of this magnitude, we’ve brought together three great studios, DICE, Motive, and Criterion and aligned their areas of expertise to deliver an amazing experience in the next Star Wars Battlefront.”

If I were to guess, DICE will focus on the multiplayer aspect, Motive on the single-player portion and Criterion chipping in with either a vehicle-centric level or VR mission. Criterion previously developed the speeder bike mission in Battlefront 2015 and crafter the PSVR X-Wing mission.

While not surprising, it’s great to see EA finally and officially confirm a single-player campaign. However, I do hope they also expand on the Skirmish mode from this Battlefront. While story modes can be fun and engaging, more opened modes like Skirmish can potentially be more replayable.

EA has also yet to confirm the name of the Battlefront sequel. Instead, Wilson referred to the game as “the next Star Wars Battlefront”. Hopefully we get a name reveal at Star Wars Celebration in April. If not there, we’ll surely get more Battlefront information at EA PLAY in June.

If you’re curious about listening to Wilson’s comments, head on over to EA’s Investor Portal.

(Top image by Cinematic Captures. Check out their Flickr page for more awesome Battlefront screenshots. Bottom two images source.)