EA’s CFO Blake Jorgensen has discussed the Star Wars: Battlefront sequel at an investors briefing, explaining that the development team will take criticism as one of its major incentives to deliver the best game possible.
He also added that the new Star Wars movies will take part in the game experience, delivering what Jorgensen calls a “much bigger, much more exciting Battlefront.” On the other hand, Battlefield will remain without a sequel for a couple of years, as the DICE team is aiming toward putting all of its effort in polishing the next iteration in the Star Wars: Battlefront series.
A result of the current state of video game marketing
EA joins the group of game developers that have chosen to lay rest to some of their most highly-acclaimed series, such as Ubisoft, which announced a pause for Assassin’s Creed and restrained from releasing a sequel in 2016. This is perhaps to divert efforts into making a game that can compete against other big franchises, seeing that the video game industry is undergoing important hardware and interaction changes with the implementation of accessible virtual reality headsets.
2016 has been the year when game developers must step outside the box and find a new type of interactivity that will allow them to excel what the competition has accomplished so far.
This phenomenon could also be related to something that developers call “gamer fatigue,” where the abundance of new high-quality titles makes it so gamers are no longer impressed, and marketing influence is predominant over the game’s creative process, which results into the company pushing for a sequel while the previous installment of the series has not been allowed to rest on the gamer’s hard drive disks for long enough so they can get accustomed to its mechanics and immersive resources.
“We were very excited about how Star Wars: Battlefront came out last year. It’s a beautiful game, people loved it. I think if there was criticism they just wanted more. And so we’re taking that criticism to heart as we build the next game and trying to address any of the issues that they had,” stated Jorgensen.
The game has been criticized for lacking a single player campaign and limiting the aspects of multiplayer gameplay due to an apparent “lack of content,” being compared to the original Battlefront II, which allowed the player to conquer the entire galaxy.
Star Wars: Battlefront will be released in late 2017 on all consoles, while a DLC expansion pack for Rogue One will be hitting the game markets in just a few weeks.
The new DLC Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: Scarif will feature four new maps located on the tropical planet of Scarif. It will also let players use new characters such as Director Orson Krennic and Jyn Erson. This DLC will also add a map that sustains both ground and space combat.
Players with Battlefront’s Season Pass can enjoy the new Scarif DLC on December 6, while regular players will have to wait until the 20, just before Christmas. In the meantime, players can also enjoy the exclusive Rogue One: X-Wing VR Mission for the PS4.
Source: IGN