The development of Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been a notoriously troubled journey, spanning two decades and multiple failed attempts by various game studios. The latest reports indicate EA is moving forward with a new Battlefront 3, but this comes at the cost of shutting down BioWare and canceling the Mass Effect Universe project, a move that has cast a shadow over the anticipated shooter.
The original Star Wars: Battlefront 2, released in 2005 by Pandemic Studios, remains a beloved title. Despite its popularity, a direct sequel never materialized from Pandemic. Game designer Dan Nanni revealed in an interview that early work on a follow-up was halted due to shifts in console generations and an inability to meet LucasArts' stringent one-year development deadline. This pattern of challenging timelines would plague future iterations.
LucasArts then partnered with Free Radical Design, known for the TimeSplitters series, to develop a new Battlefront. Leaked footage suggests this version was highly ambitious, featuring seamless transitions between planetary combat and space battles. Some developers involved have claimed the game was between 75% and 95% complete. However, corporate upheaval at LucasArts, including the departure of president Jim Ward, led to Free Radical missing crucial deadlines. The subsequent management ultimately canceled the project, reportedly due to concerns about meeting a Fall 2008 release window. While some assets from this canceled game were repurposed for Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron on PSP, the original Battlefront series effectively ended.
Years later, EA and DICE rebooted the franchise with Star Wars Battlefront in 2015 and its sequel in 2017. These titles faced criticism for lacking single-player content and, in the case of the sequel, for their controversial loot box implementations. Despite these issues, the games found an audience.
Further complicating the pursuit of a new Battlefront title, Kotaku reported in 2020 that an open-world spin-off codenamed Project Viking was canceled. EA had pushed its Vancouver and Criterion Studios to rapidly develop the game for a Fall 2020 deadline, but the project was scrapped in early 2019 when it became apparent the tight turnaround was unfeasible. This instance, like others, highlights a potential publisher tendency to prioritize release dates over the full realization of a game's potential, a challenge often amplified by the constraints of developing licensed properties.
The current indication is that EA and DICE are finally committed to developing Battlefront 3. However, the news broke alongside reports of BioWare's closure and the cancellation of its Mass Effect Universe game. This decision, attributed to EA's acquisition by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, means that the development of Battlefront 3 comes with the significant sacrifice of another major project and the displacement of numerous developers. The narrative surrounding Star Wars Battlefront 3 has thus become intertwined with corporate decisions and industry pressures, raising questions about whether any Star Wars shooter of this kind is destined to remain perpetually in development limbo or if this latest iteration will finally break the curse.