Known insider Tom Henderson has claimed that Electronic Arts turned down DICE’s pitch for Star Wars Battlefront III due to licensing costs.
Not to be confused with the cancelled Battlefront 3 in the original Battlefront series, Battlefront III would have been a sequel of sorts to 2017’s Battlefront II, which was mired in controversy due to microtransactions.
“It got turned down because it takes 20 percent more sales to make the same money,” one former developer told Henderson. That said, EA is currently working on two Star Wars titles, both of which are reportedly story-driven, single-player focused experiences.
“Several key developers that worked on the Battlefront series have since left the DICE studio in the past year, including the likes of Battlefront II’s creative director Dennis Bränvall, core gameplay designer Christian Johannesé, and lead hero designer Guillaume Mroz,” Henderson added. “It would indicate a Battlefront III is very unlikely. I have seen the build file for DICE’s next title in October, currently just dubbed ‘Dev-Next,’ which indicates that the title has passed Gate 0, which is its conceptual stage. This stage usually takes a few months of time.”
Henderson clarified that it’s standard procedure to pitch concepts while a game is already in development, so whatever ‘Dev-Next’ is, it didn’t take any development resources away from Battlefield 2042.
“It should also be said that development can change at any given time and the next title has started development, but if Battlefront III ever gets greenlit and starts development for whatever reason, I’ll break the news,” Henderson concluded.
[Source: Twitter]
