Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront is a 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 player's weapons, character, abilities, 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.

Cargo is an interpretation of the classic Capture the Flag game mode. Each team controls a base with their own captured cargo. Teams need to run into the opposing teams' base, pick up their cargo and bring it back to their own base, while also defending their base from the opposing team. However, you do not need cargo in your own base in order to capture the opposing team's cargo, creating a "tug of war" experience.

In Heroes vs Villains, each team consists of 6 players. 3 players spawn as the heroes of their corresponding team, while the other 3 spawn as troopers. However, if you are a hero/villain and you are defeated, you will spawn as a normal trooper. The objective is to take out the opposing teams' character.

Hero Hunt pits one hero or villain, depending on the planet, against seven soldiers of the opposing team. The objective is to defeat that hero or villain; however, when this character is defeated, the player who defeated them will become the new hero or villain. The objective of the player who spawned as a hero or villain is to take out the seven soldiers of the opposing team and keep yourself alive.

In Droid Run, three GNK power droids roam the map. In small maps with six players on each team, players must locate the droids, chase them and capture and defend them for their team.

Single-Player & Co-Op
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 other modes.

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. You can only play as a Rebel trooper in this Mission.

Training consists of six various Missions to allow you to be more accustomed to the gameplay and its mechanics. The player can play as either Rebel troopers or Imperial Stormtroopers, depending on the Mission. In the mission Probe Droid, players can learn of the various Star Cards, which make up your loadout, weapons, and "blowing up Imperial hardware". In the Beggar's Cannon mission, players will be able to pilot X-wings in the skies of Tatooine while combatting enemy TIE fighters. The mission called Invasion is relatively similar, although players this time pilot Snowspeeders on Hoth. In Overpower, the player acts as an Imperial soldier piloting an AT-ST. In the Endor Chase mission, the player must chase after Rebel troopers who have hijacked speeder bikes. Finally, in the Mission respectively called The Dark Side, the player can play as Darth Vader while attacking a Rebel base on Hoth. Should you play with a partner, they will be assigned to playing as Emperor Palpatine.

Battles pits the player against enemy AI in a deathmatch-like scenario. Playing with a partner allows one to play against them as well, either backed by enemy AI or in one-versus-one action. The goal of the player is to reach 100 points; however, in order for a point to count by taking out an enemy, the player must pick up a token they drop when taken down, otherwise the kill will not count. Hero Battles plays the same way, except it allows the player to control a hero or villain rather than playing as a regular soldier. At most, your team can have 5 AI allies while the opposing team can have 14 enemy AI.

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.

Release
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 was originally open from October 8 through October 12, during which players were able to access three game modes: Walker Assault (Hoth), Drop Zone (Sullust) and Survival Mission (Tatooine). On October 12, the Beta was extended one day to October 13. Reportedly, the beta drew nine million participants.

Game editions
Four editions of the game will be released:
 * Standard edition
 * Deluxe edition (includes digital exclusives)
 * Darth Vader-themed PlayStation 4 bundle; Lucasfilm and Sony gave away some of these in a Twitter sweepstakes.
 * Ultimate Edition (includes Season Pass)

Wal Mart will also sell an exclusive bundle that includes the Deluxe Edition of the game and a mini-refrigerator modeled after Han Solo in carbonite.

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 will be eligible to play the downloadable content beginning on December 1, 2015, one week before those who have not pre-ordered.

A Battlefront companion app was released by the Apple App Store and Google Play. It includes the mini-game "Base Command", which can be used to earn credits that can unlock content in Battlefront. The app was first made available during the October 2015 Beta test.

On October 12, 2015, EA announced that the game will have four expansion packs, and that a $50 Season Pass would be available that would cover all expansions and grant the purchaser early access to each.

Tie-in media
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.

Turtle Beach will sell a Battlefront-themed Sandtrooper headset as a Best Buy exclusive.

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.