The Story Of ‘Star Wars Battlefront III’

Star Wars

Jan 15

Fans of Star Wars have had many experiences across the years in video game form. There were many greats in the 2000s, among them the Star Wars Battlefront series. A third game in that most successful of series was meant to be coming, with Star Wars Battlefront III bringing the series to the then next generation of consoles. Yet it was not meant to be, with the game being cancelled less than a year before it was meant to release in April 2009.

While DICE would take its own direction in rebooting the series after the Disney acquisition of the franchise, many have still wanted to experience what Battlefront III would have brought to the series. Especially when material such as unreleased trailers and even development builds showed what could have been. One of the major groups revealing such materials has been Free Radical Archive. Through extensive work across the years, they have been piecing together the story of Battlefront III.

RELATED:

Featured

'Skeleton Crew' Creators Talk About Expanding The 'Star Wars' Universe And Chances Of A Season Two

First, a bit of scene setting. Pandemic’s Star Wars Battlefront II continued the success of the first after its release in November 2005. While accurate sales figures are unknown, NPD sales data for November 2005 notes that PS2 and Xbox versions had roughly 450,000 sales each, while the PSP version had roughly 100,000 sales. This success would continue across 2006, but these early high sales had LucasArts looking to create new games in the Battlefront series.

One of those games would be PSP exclusive Renegade Squadron, developed by Rebellion. An interview that included Rebellion’s Head of Production, Mike Burnham, at Comics Alliance reveals that Rebellion’s business developer team had a chance encounter with a LucasArts representative at a games conference “a couple of years ago” from its October 2007 release date. LucasArts at that time were seeking “a top quality developer for the next PSP Battlefront game”.

Rebellion at that time had already developed “a number of high-profile PSP titles” and were “huge Star Wars fans,” which was an opportunity of a lifetime for them to develop a game in the franchise. And a Battlefront one, at that. This wasn’t the only Battlefront project LucasArts had in development, which is where the story of Battlefront III starts. A story which Rebellion plays a part.

In early 2006, LucasArts approached Pandemic to make a third game, but with only one year of development being part of the contract, Pandemic declined. So, after approaching multiple developers, Free Radical Design were signed on to develop Battlefront III in June 2006. With a milestone approval process in place, LucasArts were involved in the development decisions.

At first, only PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were planned. But in 2007, Wii and PC versions were signed for development. The Wii couldn’t match the control and power of the other versions. While keeping to the same core ideas, it would be developed with the limitations of the Wii in mind. Pointer controls for aiming, and lowered players for online matches. Exclusive to the Wii version were extra modes, such as a 1-on-1 battle arena.

While development seemed to continue smoothly, appearances at conventions such as E3 and Tokyo Game Show were cancelled. LucasArts felt the game wasn’t yet ready for the public to see. Instead, Renegade Squadron would take its place. At the beginning of 2008, Free Radical proposed a delay for the game. After discussions, a new date of April 2009 was approved. Battlefront III wasn’t the only LucasArts project seeing delays, with The Force Unleashed and an Indiana Jones game also seeing delays. Soon after the delays, LucasArts president Jim Ward would resign, believed to be regarding disagreements on whether delays would increase sales.

A drastic change would undergo LucasArts with the appointment of its next president. Darrell Rodriguez set about cutting costs, bringing in a round of mass layoffs as part of the restructuring of the company. Free Radical had been working on Haze for Ubisoft at the same time as Battlefront III. On that game’s release in May 2008, it received poor critical and commercial reception. The relationship between LucasArts and Free Radical started to deteriorate, especially when some at LucasArts believed resources meant for Battlefront III had instead been used for Haze.

Stricter milestones started to be put into place, which Free Radical would often miss. Though they could operate from the profits of Haze when missing such deadlines, content was starting to be cut in order to meet the final release date. The objective-based mode of Assault was removed, player numbers dropped, and Galactic Conquest – a staple of the previous games – removed. E3 2008’s showcase of the game was scrapped, with LucasArts not happy with the current state of the game.

Though milestones were missed, though Free Radical had now entered redundancy consultation, it was believed that Battlefront III could still be finished for its April 2009 release. LucasArts thought differently. Ties were cut with Free Radical when it was clear the November milestone would not be reached, with just a small part of the contractual termination fee being provided to Free Radical. The studio would enter into administration in December, eventually being bought by Crytek.

QA testers for Battlefront III had a lot of issues when playing, with so many bugs and crashes they noted. But what they also noted was the game was a lot of fun. This, perhaps, is what made LucasArts give Battlefront III a second chance. A chance with Rebellion. Who LucasArts had already contacted soon after the release of Renegade Squadron to develop the PSP and PS2 versions of Battlefront III.

Incorporating elements of Renegade Squadron to their versions of Battlefront III, such as customisation of loadouts, these versions were to provide a scaled back game compared to what Free Radical were designing. In early 2009, when LucasArts approached them to continue the project, Rebellion felt next-generation versions could be done. But the low production costs and tight deadline LucasArts gave to them meant it couldn’t be done in time.

As such, all next generation versions of Battlefront III were scrapped. The PSP version, and already completed DS version developed by N-space, were renamed to Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron. The PS2 version was also scrapped, under the belief that it would have been harder to market without the backing of the next-gen versions. While not under the name of Battlefront III, its concepts would officially be revealed at E3 2009 under the Elite Squadron name. When it released in November 2009, Elite Squadron received mediocre reviews across both PSP and DS versions.

Despite that, LucasArts was unwilling to give up on a new Battlefront, despite the fact it was also entering into troubled times. Small budgets and tight deadlines would be a factor of many projects at LucasArts that would end up cancelled. In 2010, Slant Six Games were commissioned to make a downloadable, online-only Battlefront game. After just a few months, it was shelved. A smaller-scale spiritual successor was also planned in 2010, with First Assault being step one in a three-part plan that would lead to Battlefront III. In September of 2012, a LucasArts freeze on any hiring or marketing of games preceded the news that Disney had bought Lucasfilm in October of that year.

With Disney at the helm, LucasArts was shut down in April 2013, with all its projects cancelled. The license for game development would transfer to EA, who would bring a rebooted Battlefront out in 2015. A second game under EA would arrive in 2017, but owing to numerous factors, including the increased licensing costs Disney had placed on the Star Wars IP after not renewing EA’s exclusivity contract, meant a third in EA’s series would not go ahead.

On a personal note, I have longed for what Free Radical were doing ever since I saw the first of that leaked material back in 2009. Elite Squadron gave a nice taste of what would have been, but the desire for the full thing remains. Even after all this time. EA’s efforts were fun, offering the amazing audiovisual delights that suck me into the world. Gameplay that can easily get me invested for hours across its main modes. But the unfulfilled promise of seamless ground-to-space combat has been unanswered.

Though Free Radical Archive are providing the closest experiences to it. Late last year, that almost complete Wii build surfaced, with Free Radical archive hoping to fix what bugs remain. All of what has been found out has also been going into the Star Wars Battlefront II mod of Battlefront III: Legacy. And there’s always the hope Rebellion are given permission to revisit their PSP games, remaking them for modern consoles.

READ NEXT:

Featured