The internet is currently doing everything in their power to make Electronic Arts and Disney develop Star Wars Battlefront III, but did you know we came ridiculously close to actually getting a third Star Wars Battlefront game… almost 20 years ago.
So, just so we’re all on the same page, I’m referring to the original Star Wars Battlefront games that dropped in 2004 and 2005– not the two that came out in 2015 and 2017.
I get that you wanted some cross media synergy or whatever, but you couldn’t have called it Star Wars Battlefield or something, guys? Oh. Wait. Never mind…
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As revealed in a recent article by VideoGamer’s Lewis White, there were actually plans to develop a follow-up to Pandemic Studios’ Star Wars: Battlefront II, although it may not be the follow-up you’re expecting.
Details and footage regarding a third entry in the series developed by Free Radical Design has made its way online over the past few years, but it turns out that the original developers actually had a crack at developing the title beforehand.
As Pandemic developer and Star Wars Battlefront II designer Dan Nanni explained in their interview with VideoGamer, the team was actually part way through working on the third game before the rights were taken away from them… because they couldn’t deliver on the title in time.
“It was honestly, we started working on it and then negotiations just didn’t take off,” Nani revealed.
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“When somebody says, ‘I want you to be able to make another game for us in one year’, and you don’t know what tools you’re working with, you can’t make an accurate prediction on whether or not you can hit it… And so, I think, negotiations stalled out because I think we wanted more time to work on it. But obviously, Lucas was also trying to align it with their own marketing beats.”
It seems the impending release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith meant that the team would have had a single year to develop the game, which is something they didn’t feel was possible considering they were dealing with new-generation (the Xbox 360 and PS3) hardware.
It’s obviously a huge shame the game never saw the light of day, but I can hardly blame Pandemic. Delivering on a project that big in such a small timeframe would have doubtlessly led to crunch, and an inferior game than they were capable of making.