The news that Star Wars: Battlefront won’t have any space only battles when it launches has disappointed many fans of the series, and has led some to accuse EA and developer DICE of ‘holding back features for DLC’ post launch.
A producer at the studio states this is ”100% wrong.” They gone on to say there’s been ‘no such strategy’ on any of their titles at DICE. DLC practices have long lurked in murky waters.
It’s understandable fans would be suspicious of content not making it at launch, considering that same content has been a part of the series to-date. The same scepticism and accusations were thrown at EA over the lack of swimming pools in The Sims 4 at launch, which came later as part of a free update. Would it have come freely without community ire though?
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”…if you think there’s anything we’re not including in the game to save it for DLC, I can tell you you’re 100% wrong. In this project, I’ve never heard anyone say “Let’s not do this for launch so we can do it as DLC instead”. Ever,” replied producer Jesper Nielsen on Reddit.
The new Battlefront was also confirmed to not support a single-player campaign, but is instead multiplayer-focused. The ‘Battle of Jakku’ DLC will be post-launch and free, adding in a location from the new Episode VII: The Force Awakens film.
”The situation was never that we had the Jakku maps in the main game, and then stripped them to put them in a DLC,” he explained. ”It was that the idea to do the Jakku maps came quite late in the process and we didn’t have capacity to add them for launch, so we found a way to get them out to people as soon as possible after launch.”
”Of course, if you want to think we’re evil, you’ll always think up evil motives and method. But in all essence, this is the output of hundreds of passionate people and games, just like people here, who want to deliver great gaming experiences.”
Whatever any DICE employee says, no matter their position, they’ll always be treated with scepticism. Some of that will be healthy, and some will be borderline conspiracy. The sad fact is that DICE’s most recent performance with the Battlefield series has damaged their reputation.
Star Wars: Battlefront releases on PC November 17th in the US, 20th in the UK.
