When Disney purchased Lucasfilm for just over $4 billion in 2012 the animation giant also acquired many of Lucasfilm's intellectual properties and subsidiaries such as the Indiana Jones movies, the Monkey Island video games, and software developer Lucasarts; who had handled all video game adaptations of the Star Wars license up until that point. Unfortunately for long term fans Disneys acquisition of Lucasfilm spelled the death of Lucasarts as a developer/publisher when the company, now headed by Kathleen Kennedy announced that for the foreseeable future all Star Wars video games would be developed and published by Electronic Arts (EA) and DICE.
While commercially this decision made sense with EA being one of the industries biggest developers, many fans feared that the companies notorious practices (online passes, multiple expansion and content packs, online activation, overpriced DLC etc.) that had negatively impacted the commercial success of former titles (Spore, Sim City, Command & Conquer) might also affect Star Wars licensed titles, which previously under Lucasarts had enjoyed a golden age with many successful titles such as Episode 1 Racer, Unleashed, Knights of the Old Republic, Rogue Squadron, Empire at War and of course Battlefront.
Unfortunately for EA and DICE the critical and fan opinion of their reboot of the Battlefront series was far from favorable, with the general consensus being that while the game looked the part the game was only enjoyable in small spurts and many criticized the lack of any of the franchises iconic space battles. In a continued bid to shed their old image as a cash-hungry developer EA have been actively listening to the criticisms and promise that the Battlefront 2 will be a return to form and an improvement over the classic series developed by Lucasarts. While no concrete information has yet been released EA has confirmed that the game will premiere at next month's Star Wars Celebration event, to be held in Orlando, Florida between April 13th - 16th.
Rumors suggest that the new Battlefront will feature the sorely missed space battle sequences, a single player campaign that may also be playable co-operatively and that the game will reportedly also feature content from the Clone Wars era of the saga. Another rumor suggests that Visceral Games (Dead Space series) will also unveil their top secret Star Wars title, which many fans feel will be reminiscent of the abandoned Lucasarts title codenamed Star Wars 1313, at the forthcoming Star Wars Celebration event.
UPDATE: EA have now confirmed this report and have announced SWBF 2 will debut at Star Wars Celebration!
Source:Star Wars HQ
