Star Wars Battlefront II

"Next year we'll see Star Wars Battlefront back with bigger and better worlds, because we now have the new movies to work off [and] not just the historical movies that we used before."

- Blake Jorgensen, Electronic Arts chief financial officer

Star Wars Battlefront II will be released on November 17, 2017 by Electronic Arts. It is a sequel to 2015's Star Wars Battlefront. The sequel will include worlds depicted in the new Star Wars films as well as content from the original and prequel trilogies.

The game is being developed with singleplayer and multiplayer modes by DICE, with additional support by Motive Studios and Criterion Games.

Story
The storyline predominantly follows Iden Versio, commander of the Imperial Special Forces unit Inferno Squad. Upon witnessing the destruction of the second Death Star, Versio's troops look to her for direction. Versio tells her troops that they will avenge the Emperor.

The story will span thirty years, beginning in the waning months of the Galactic Civil War and concluding around the destruction of Starkiller Base.

There will be segments in the campaign where other characters are playable as well, including Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Lando Calrissian and Princess Leia Organa.

Overview
The game will return to the roots of the classic Battlefront games, using a class-based system for infantry troopers with each class having a shared progression system, but with equipment differing depending on faction.

The classes will be Officer, Assault, Heavy, and Specialist.

More vehicles will be included for all factions, including Tauntauns. Space battles will also be making a return with new starships. Vehicles will also be a part of a new customization and progression system.

Vehicles and heroes are opened up for play by gaining Battle Points through play, instead of picking up a token as previous.

Playable hero and villain characters from the films will be expanded upon, with players able to customize skills to their liking. Creative Director Bernd Diemer stated that he wanted the heroes to have more depth rather than feeling like a momentary power up.

In multiplayer, the game will feature "loot crates" with random upgraded gear and items. These loot crates can be unlocked with natural progression through the game or by spending real-world currency.

Gamemodes

 * Campaign: The game will include a brand-new canon storyline which bridges the gap between Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens.


 * Arcade: This game mode brings offline singleplayer (and two player coop on consoles) gameplay with and versus AI in different battle scenarios.


 * Multiplayer: Multiplayer includes different online game modes which can support up to 40 simultaneous players.
 * Galactic Assault: 20v20 battles with unique objectives for each map.
 * Starfighter Assault: 12v12 space battles with 20 AI ships per team with unique objectives for maps both in space and in the skies of planets.
 * Strike: 8v8 mode where two teams compete in objective based scenarios.
 * Blast: 10v10 team deathmatch.
 * Heroes vs. Villains: 4v4 hero duels involving characters from all three eras.

Development
The game's development was revealed in an interview with an EA executive in 2016. More information, including its development by DICE and Motive Studios, was revealed during EA's Livestream during E3 2016.

The game's development is a collaboration between DICE, who are developing the multiplayer, Motive Studios, who are developing the single player mode, and Criterion Software, who are developing the vehicle and flight controls. The game will include content from all three film trilogies. A goal of the game's story is to humanize the Empire in ways that haven't been seen before.

On April 12, 2017 a teaser trailer was leaked giving confirmation that the game would include content from all three main Star Wars eras, a single player campaign, and heroes such as Kylo Ren, Rey, Darth Maul, and Yoda. EA premiered this trailer the following day during their panel at 2017's Celebration Orlando. A gameplay trailer for the game was released on June 10, 2017 during the Battlefront II panel at E3 2017.

The singleplayer trailer was released in October 2017, with a preview on The Star Wars Show.

While working on the game, the development team notably consulted Emil Fortune's reference book Star Wars: Galactic Atlas. Additionally, the team worked with Lucasfilm Ltd.'s Story Group on the campaign and characters, including making Luke Skywalker's character arc was consistent, and keeping the game in line with other Star Wars visuals, according to Game Director Mark Thompson.

Release
In April 2017 during the presentation at Star Wars Celebration, it was confirmed that the game would be released on November 17, 2017 and November 14 for those pre ordering the Deluxe Elite Trooper Edition. An open beta was held from October 4 to October 11.

Reception
When the game was announced it was received with mostly positive reaction by most fans, largely because of the inclusion of all three cinematic eras, a singleplayer campaign, and improved gameplay from the previous reboot of the series. However, after the open beta, the game has received criticism for the use of loot boxes and crates, with many players worried over the supposed introduction of a "pay to win" system and random progression not tied to player skill. The game alongside EA itself was criticized for locking Heroes and making players "grind" ridiculous amounts, some estimated to be around 40 hours to unlock a single character which in turn would encourage the purchases of Loot crates to make it easier for the player to unlock them. When EA responded to the criticism on Reddit, their comment received several hundred thousand downvotes, more than any other by magnitudes.

Editions
There are two editions of the game available: the Standard edition and the Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition.

The Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition will include Rey and Kylo Ren The Last Jedi skins, early access to the game, and game upgrades for weapons and Heroes.

Downloadable content
DICE hinted that the game will not include a season pass, unlike the previous game, instead they wanted to find a better alternative in order to avoid "fragmenting" the community of players. It was confirmed during EA Play 2017 that there would not be a season pass; rather, all downloadable content will be free for all players and will be included in events called Seasons.

The Last Jedi Season
The first Season expansion, The Last Jedi Season is set to be released on December 5 and is centered around Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the eighth film in the Star Wars saga which is set to release on December 15, 2017. It will feature a space map over D'Qar, the new planet Crait, Resistance hero Finn and First Order villain Captain Phasma.