Fans are getting together to send a message to EA, we want Battlefront back!
After seeing a rather interesting post on Facebook the other day, I realized that there was suddenly a movement to bring back the beloved Battlefront series by EA. Fans have decided that the best way to show EA that Battlefront 3 would be a good idea is by simply playing the currently available Battlefront 2.
When I first saw the movement starting, the were celebrating a little over 3k concurrent players in the game via Steam. Which is rather good considering the game was relatively dead up to that point. Several players were noting that game modes that would otherwise never find matches, were finding players within 5 or so minutes.
Fast forward to the most recent update and it appears that the number has grown to just over 10k players on Steam. Along with the new revived push is also Andor’s Muhannad Ben Amor posting to Instagram that EA needs to make Battlefront 3, noting he spent over 460 hours in Battlefront 2.
Sadly it appears that along with the uptick in popularity comes the downside of a game that has been forgotten. The Star Wars Battlefront subreddit has been gaining popularity, but a lot of recent posts are pointing out that hackers are again ruining the game, and unless EA takes the push seriously it might be a big roadblock.
Will it work?
Well if it’s one thing that corporations ever understand, it’s money. If the fans can steadily hold these player counts, and potentially increase them, then without a doubt EA will find a way to have them open their wallets for another. There is a slight possibility that the servers just get shut down too, but that’s somewhat doubtful.
In terms of development, it might be a while. DICE is currently polishing up the next Battlefield title, which is expected to be fully revealed this Summer. However with the two games utilizing the same style and engine, it’s possible that Battlefront follows along next. A few years ago DICE had already approached EA to make the game, but EA rejected it due to the costs of licensing Star Wars from Disney. EA noted the franchise would need to sell 33% more units to justify the licensing, the first two titles had already sold 33 million units.
Another option for EA is to keep utilizing Respawn to create the game and go in a totally new direction. Instead of being Battlefield inspired, they could use the playstyle and mechanics that Respawn uses for Titanfall and Apex. Respawn has been making some incredible Star Wars titles, and is currently working on a 3rd Jedi title, so they have the assets to do it.
EA clearly has options, it appears it just comes down to a licensing agreement with Disney.
Either way, it’s pretty nice to see the gaming community doing something that brings people together and simply enjoy a game.
