DICE General Manager Patrick Bach has said that Star Wars Battlefront is a project “driven by passion” and that’s one of the pillars of the studio. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Bach said that he believes DICE’s passion “shines through” in what we’ve seen of the game thus far.
If you’re passionate about something it will turn out great. If you’re not passionate it will be more like it’s just work. And I think in what you’ve seen of Star Wars Battlefront so far it shines through, we are quite passionate. It’s sometimes silly how passionate people are about this.
He went on to say that the studio wanted to create a game that the developers wanted to play but which didn’t exist.
It’s good that there hasn’t been a really great Star Wars game because it’s an opportunity to make something that is truly our own and truly Star Wars. Working together really tightly with Lucasfilm on this has proven that they are as passionate as we are but we are experts in different fields. The overlap between DICE and Lucasfilm has been quite big when it comes to what we want to achieve.
Elsewhere in the interview, Bach discussed the challenges involved in taking on the Star Wars franchise, stating that it’s not exactly a DICE game per se but is supposed to have qualities of a DICE game. However, the studio is trying to stay as true to the franchise as possible in order to not disappoint fans. He also said that working on Battlefront has brought a “different kind of pressure” to the development team because it’s not the studio’s own original IP.
If you ever own IP it can be anything, it’s up to you to shape it, define it and also iterate it and turn it into whatever you want it to be for the future. Here we have a franchise that’s been around for quite some time to be honest and people have very fond memories of what it was and maybe not what it is. Your memories are one thing and then the reality is something else. A lot of people get disappointed when they watch the movies again, if enough time has passed, because what they remember was not even in the movies.
When asked if Battlefront‘s success could change DICE’s future and if it could end up becoming the “Battlefront studio” instead of the “Battlefield studio,” Bach said that he hasn’t thought that far ahead.
Star Wars Battlefront will be out on November 17 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]
