Let’s speculate about Skirmish and Battlefront II

As I discussed the campaign for the upcoming Battlefront II several days ago, I figured it might be fun to delve into the other offline portion the game could potentially offer: Skirmish.

Skirmish was added to the previous Battlefront last July after the game suffered criticism for a lack of single-player content upon its launch. The mode enabled play against bots on the vanilla maps of Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron. Skirmish was meant to echo “Instant Action” from the first Battlefronts, and early code in EA’s game had it using that same name. All in all, it was a fun addition to the game, but ultimately left players wanting more as it failed to incorporate more modes or DLC content.

While EA’s first Battlefront admittedly fell a bit short for those wanting to engage in the game offline, the company has stressed the importance of the single-player component for the sequel. In December, EA’s general manager of Star Wars, Justin McCully, promised that the sequel would fulfill players’ single-player desires:

“We heard the fans loud and clear that the multiplayer was great, but it wasn’t enough and they wanted that complete package,” he said in an episode of Channel 33’s Achievement Oriented podcast. “So the team has been very focused on delivering that single-player element.”

Concept art from Motive Studios for Battlefront II.

Other higher ups at EA and DICE have also made overtures towards beefed-up single-player content in the sequel, including CFO Blake Jorgensen and Battlefront producer Paul Keslin. However—at this point—the only promised single-player bit is a campaign.

With that in mind, there is some hope for Skirmish to appear in Battlefront II. Recently, a community manager for EA who goes by EA_David, replied to a question asking about Skirmish in the sequel.

“[W]e don’t have any specifics yet about the content of the next Battlefront game, other than that there will be a single player campaign and that multiple eras will be covered,” he wrote. “I’d personally be very surprised if we didn’t put Skirmish in as it was very popular in [EA’s first Battlefront], but I don’t have any exclusive/inside info so this is just personal speculation.”

There are several things to note about the community manager’s response:

1. This is the first time I’ve seen someone at EA acknowledge the popularity of Skirmish in any way. It may mean something, it may not.
2. However, there is an awful big “but”. David admits that he doesn’t have any “exclusive/inside info” regarding Skirmish. As such, it’s probably a good idea not to read into his words very much.
3. There are a lot of moving parts in game development. Even if Skirmish was popular, for a variety of reasons, it might not make it into Battlefront II.

So, while this answer may look promising, it’s important to realize that what the community manager said may not come to fruition.

Luke facing stormtroopers in Battlefront. Image by Cinematic Captures.

Still, I hope to see Skirmish in Battlefront II. It would help bring about a change of pace and may offer a bit more replayablity than a campaign would. I think its addition would also excite a number of people. Plus, maybe—just maybe—its return could also spell the return of Galactic Conquest, a strategy mode from the original Battlefronts, but that’s purely a pipe dream of mine as of now.

All told, right now I’m not sold on the idea that Skirmish is for sure coming in Battlefront II. I’m just not confident yet that the community manager’s words confirm anything. However, hopefully we’ll find out more during the Battlefront II reveal at Star Wars Celebration this Saturday, April 15.

Do you think Skirmish will work its way into the Battlefront sequel? Let us know in the comment section below, or chime in via SWGO’s Twitter or Facebook pages.

(H/T @swbattlefront_c on Twitter)

(Top image by Cinematic Captures. Bottom image also by Cinematic Captures. Check out their Fickr page for more awesome Battlefront screenshots. Second image source.)