Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront is an upcoming video game from DICE, a game developer owned by Electronic Arts. The game is not the third title in the Star Wars: Battlefront series, but rather one that is DICE's own take on the format. According to DICE, the game will not have a story of its own, unlike past Battlefront games. Instead, the game will reinterpret the stories and battles presented in the original trilogy alongside some battles presented in the novel Battlefront: Twilight Company such as the Battle of Sullust.

Publisher's summary
Star Wars™ Battlefront™ is the ultimate Star Wars battle experience, brought to life by the creators of Battlefield''. Fight in epic Star Wars battles on iconic planets and rise through the ranks playing as the heroic Rebellion or the evil Galactic Empire.''

Overview
According to Electronic Arts, the game will have the option to switch at will between first-person mode and third-person mode, much like the previous entries in the series. The game will be restricted to the Galactic Civil War era presented throughout and after the original trilogy. The game will not feature a single-player campaign like Star Wars: Battlefront II, but rather a set of co-op missions; these missions can be played alone, online, or with split-screen. An offline split-screen mode will also be available. Many multiplayer game modes will be available as well. Players will be able to play as hero and villain characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Players will have the opportunity to spawn on a teammate in a partner system. DICE based the game's AI off of the Star Wars films, but tweaked it to make it accessible. No loadouts will be featured, as the characters weapons, character, loadout, and powerups are customizable.

Gamemodes

 * Cargo
 * Drop Zone
 * Fighter Squadron
 * Walker Assault
 * Supremacy
 * Blast
 * Droid Run
 * Heroes vs Villains
 * Hero Hunt
 * Missions (series of single-player/co-op modes)
 * Battles
 * Training
 * Hero Battles
 * Survival

Multiplayer
The game will not use the Battlelog system to connect players, as provided in DICE's previous games. Rather, a new system will be built from scratch, and will be featured as an an in-game menu.

The two largest game modes are Walker Assault and Supremacy, allowing 40 players (20 per team) to play in a single match. The other game modes will have smaller player counts. Other multiplayer modes included are Fighter Squadron, Blast, Drop Zone, Cargo, and Droid Run.

Walker Assault is partially based on the classic Rush game mode. The Empire pushes their AT-AT's to the Rebel base while Rebel troopers attack the Empire's AT-AT's and defend their base. This mode will feature a 40-player count.

Blast will be a standard Team Deathmatch, with 10 players on each side. Lead Level Designer Dennis Brännvall revealed that there would be a 10-minute/100 kill limit, and that the mode would not include a chance to play as a Hero or Villain.

Supremacy, based off the classic Conquest mode, is a 10-minute match which features five control points for the teams to capture, with each side owning two at the start of the match. Each one will unlock in sequence as they are captured, and the maps will be the largest in the game.

Fighter Squadron is a starship-exclusive match with 10 ships on each side, along with AI teammates. In addition, each side has an AI-controlled shuttle.

Drop Zone is based off of King of the Hill. Players need to control the landing sites of drop pods as they fall from the sky. The first team to capture five of those pods or the team who holds the majority of the drop pods after 10 minutes will emerge the victor.

Single-player
Single-player and co-op will be available in the form of a series of game modes collectively known as Missions. These "missions" include Survival, Battles, Hero Battles and Trials. Survival will only offer the chance to play as Rebels, although players can join either side in Battles mode.

In the Survival mission, you, and your partner should you have one, must hold off against 15 waves of Imperial forces. Each wave gets increasingly more difficult than the last. Throughout the mission, several drop pods will descend to the ground, allowing you to capture them for power-ups.

Development
EA first unveiled their plans for the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on June 10, 2013. In the hopes of creating a realistic, immersive experience for players, the DICE team visited the Lucasfilm Archives as well as filming locations for the films. The images were then turned into the 3D format by a process called photogrammetry. Additionally, preparing for the sound design, the DICE team worked with Lucasfilm and had access to their Star Wars sound library. They also had the chance to work with sound designers Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood. Audio Director Ben Minto and his team also recorded sounds in a Foley session with Dennie Thorpe and Jana Vance, and on location. On December 4, 2013, EA announced that projects from DICE, including Star Wars: Battlefront, would be delayed until performance issues in their video game Battlefield 4 were fixed. A subsequent announcement from EA clarified that the patch work would not affect upcoming release dates. Executive producer Patrick Bach revealed that the team is trying to create a new experience for players, one that isn't directly inspired by DICE's Battlefield series while still keeping ties to the original Star Wars: Battlefront series, such as perspective switch.

In October 2014, EA confirmed that it would release the game during the 2015 holiday season, near the theatrical release of The Force Awakens. On March 19, 2015, EA announced that the game would make its debut at Celebration Anaheim in April 2015. In announcing the debut, EA stated that they "could not think of a better or more appropriate place to debut the game officially for the first time than the premier event that celebrates the Star Wars universe and the legions of fans who have fallen in love with it." Soon after, EA released a letter to fans saying the first gameplay footage would be seen at E3 2015.

Beta testing will be open from October 8 through October 12, during which players will be able to access three game modes: Walker Assault (Hoth), Drop Zone (Sullust) and Survival Mission (Tatooine).

Reception
At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, where gameplay footage was first shown, Star Wars Battlefront garnered multiple award nominations from attendees, and received 39 wins.

Novel
The novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, to be released on November 3, 2015, will feature a story based on the game set following the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Game editions
Three editions of the game will be released:
 * Standard edition
 * Deluxe edition, with digital exclusives
 * Darth Vader-themed PlayStation 4 bundle Lucasfilm and Sony will give away some of these in a Twitter sweepstakes.

Downloadable content
On April 17, 2015, EA announced the first downloadable content for Star Wars Battlefront, titled Star Wars Battlefront: Battle of Jakku. It will be released at no additional charge on December 8, 2015, approximately one week prior to the world wide release of Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens. Players who have pre-ordered Star Wars Battlefront are eligible to play the downloadable content beginning on December 1, 2015, one week before those who have not pre-ordered.

Exclusive offers
Turtle Beach will sell a Battlefront-themed Sandtrooper headset as a Best Buy exclusive. Wal Mart will sell a bundle that includes the Deluxe Edition of the game and a mini-refrigerator modeled after Han Solo in carbonite.