Star Wars: Battlefront is "DICE's interpretation of what Battlefront should be"
DICE to stamp its authority on the much-loved series.
Star Wars: Battlefront, the new Star Wars game announced during EA's E3 press conference earlier this week, is developer DICE's "interpretation" of what the much-loved multiplayer-focused series should be.
That's according to EA Games Label boss Patrick Söderlund, who greenlit the project.
Little is known about the game, save it's in the early stages of development, is built using the Frostbite 3 game engine and will be released for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A brief, seconds-long clip showed a snowy scene - the surface of Hoth, on which an Empire Strikes Back-era Snowspeeder suddenly crashes.
The announcement followed EA's deal with Star Wars IP holder Disney and the closure of LucasArts.
"This is DICE's interpretation of what Battlefront should be," Söderlund told Eurogamer. "That's the best description you can have. There are absolutely things in the previous Battlefront games that you'll recognise and remember, but DICE wants to put its own flavour on it. That's the only way we can do it. Hence it's called Star Wars: Battlefront, without a 3 at the end. We want to say it's something new.
"But again, it's going to be very Star Wars and very cool."
Söderlund declined to go into more detail on Battlefront's gameplay, saying: "It's very early days."
DICE, currently making Battlefield 4, Mirror's Edge and Star Wars: Battlefront, is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and houses roughly 350 people. EA recently opened a new studio in Los Angeles called DICE LA, which is made up of former Danger Close (Medal of Honor) staff, former staff from other parts of EA in the US and some who moved from Stockholm to LA. The leadership team, however, is from Stockholm, and is headed up by studio manager Fredrick Loving.
"We will support a lot of what's made in Stockholm from LA," Söderlund explained. "Imagine stuff like potential expansion packs and premium services being managed and handled out of LA. But the main game, Battlefront, is being built in Sweden. And so is Mirror's Edge. And so is Battlefield 4.
"It's a way for us to expand the DICE universe, to be able to do more. They are helping. Who knows where this will take them long term? Right now they're focused on helping.
"In Sweden we are floors eight, nine and ten. They are the eleventh floor, just in LA. Frankly, it's about talent. Where can we find the right talent and people we think have critical skills we need? When you're in Sweden, Stockholm is a gigantic gaming city with DICE and Mojang and all the other companies, but we realised we needed to extend our reach if we wanted to get to the breadth of talent we wanted.
"We also thought we could export some of the good things about DICE into here. Since the DICE LA announcement we had a lot of pressure on that studio from people who want to come work there. And after E3, as you can probably imagine, there will be more."
"We will support a lot of what's made in Stockholm from LA. Imagine stuff like potential expansion packs and premium services being managed and handled out of LA. But the main game, Battlefront, is being built in Sweden. And so is Mirror's Edge. And so is Battlefield 4."
EA Games Label boss Patrick Söderlund
Söderlund confirmed that Danger Close is no more, following the retirement of the Medal of Honor brand after the last game in the series, Warfighter, flopped.
"Danger Close as it was doesn't exist anymore," Söderlund said. "There are people who left LA, people who work with DICE LA, and there are some who work in other parts of EA, as always when something gets dismantled."