Star Wars: Battlefront, a revival of the beloved series that was announced at E3 2014, has been given a holiday 2015 release window, Electronic Arts confirmed via Twitter. This puts the release roughly in line with another major Star Wars property, J. J. Abrams Episode VII, which is set for December 18, 2015. Although this upcoming game will be the third to bear the name, it has been referred to only as Star Wars: Battlefront so far.
Little is known about the game beyond its basic existence. A teaser video also released at E3 showed the devs at DICE visiting LucasArts for inspiration. In it, the new Battlefront team members expressed their excitement about working in the venerable universe, but revealed very little about gameplay. An E3 teaser trailer showed the foot of an AT-AT walker and a snowspeeder, both of which appeared in Empire Strikes Back; the suggestion at least is that the coming game occurs, in part, within the timeline of the Original Trilogy.
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The previous Battlefront games won fans with their large-scale, multiplayer battles that combined vehicular and infantry combat. It’s fitting that DICE, the folks behind EA’s Battlefield series, would take the reins on this series revival.
During the same investor call in which the release date was first revealed, EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen described Battlefront as EA’s “major first-person shooter” for the year. It is possible that he misspoke, or this could mean that the game will abandon the third person perspective of the first two games and instead embrace DICE’s greater experience with the FPS genre.
It was also revealed during the call that Battlefront would fill the role of EA’s annual holiday shooter, putting the next Battlefield game in for an expected 2016 launch.
