It’s been almost a decade since Star Wars Battlefront 2 and fans have been eager for a follow-up. According to Giant Bomb cohost Jeff Grubb, Lucasfilm is indeed shopping around a Star Wars Battlefront 3, but it remains to be seen who might actually make it. According to the rumor, Bungie is one of the studios in the running.
The origins of this rumor are gnarly, so buckle up. Electronic Gaming Monthly recently released a compendium retrospective, and one of the bonuses as part of the Kickstarter was a new digital issue. That new issue reportedly featured the return of the Quartermann gossip column. That column contained a rumor that Lucasfilm wants to do a new Battlefront game.
Grubb featured the column on his Game Mess Morning podcast for October 19:
The suits at Lucasfilm have been aggressively deploying probe droids for a development partner to take on the task of creating a follow-up. So far, no one has fully stepped up, but yours truly is hearing two major game studios are circling the project like a couple of snowspeeders led by the completely unsurprising EA DICE who we can hope learned from their loot box lesson. If the Force is not entrusted to DICE, it could land at none other than Halo, Destiny, and Marathon developer Bungie.
There are now others claiming to have heard similar rumors, at least the part about Disney wanting a new Battlefront game. It’s a perfect moment for this rumor to flare up and get people talking. With Galactic Racer and Zero Company, Star Wars games are hot this fall. Bungie is in-between projects, with Marathon seemingly destined to wind down and Destiny 2 on pause outside of brining older content back to the game. Sony has been fine fielding licensed Marvel projects with Insomniac Games. Why not partner with Disney on Star Wars, too?
On the other hand, if there were to be a Battlefront 3, it seems obvious to have EA DICE return to the franchise, having already been successful at it twice, rather than embark on a completely new journey with a completely new studio. I also personally think it would be a waste to have Bungie toil away for years adding to the Star Wars toybox when it’s already given us two of the best sci-fi franchises in gaming of the last decade plus when it comes to world building with both Destiny and Marathon. All things being equal, I’d rather see Bungie make another new IP.
All things aren’t equal, however. Bungie is a shell of the studio that made those earlier games and it needs a win. Sony, I’m sure, would like to see the Bellevue-based office start generating real revenue again, even if it’s on another company’s terms. Battlefront 3 is more of a slam dunk than years of prototyping and pre-production on something completely new with a Bungie that’s been completely fractured since it was acquired.
One way or another, it would still be nice to get another Battlefront one of these days. Given how long it takes to ship AAA games these days, we’ll probably be deep into the PlayStation 6/Xbox Project Helix console cycle before one even gets revealed.