Right now DICE, the guys behind Battlefield, are busy making the long-awaited sequel to Star Wars Battlefront. It’s a game that many have been clamouring for for nearly ten years. Though original developer Pandemic was shuttered, there was going to be a Battlefront III from Timesplitters developer Free Radical – but it was cancelled at the eleventh hour. That hasn’t stopped images and footage of the game escaping in to the wild. Here’s some more.
Here’s a look at the Battlefront that’ll never be, courtesy of YouTuber BananaSwag
That doesn’t look too terrible for something that’s in pre-alpha. According to one of Free Radical’s co-founders, the game was 99% complete when LucasArts decided to can the project.
“We had a 99% finished game that just needed bug fixing for release. It should have been our most successful game, but it was cancelled for financial reasons. I’m happy that people did at least get to see what we were working on and share the team’s enthusiasm for it,” said Free Radical’s Steve Ellis.
However, a LucasArts employee later said the claim was nonsense, and that the game was rubbish to begin with.
“This 99 percent complete stuff is just bullsh*t,” the former LucasArts staff member told Gamespot. “A generous estimate would be 75 percent of a mediocre game.”
“We were desperate for a next-gen follow-up to Battlefront (the claim that the project was sabotaged for financial reasons is ludicrous. The franchise was a huge money maker at the time). When Free Radical continually missed dates and deliveries, [LucasArts] made many ‘good will’ whole or partial milestone payments to keep the project going.”
Whatever happened, it all resulted in the game being canned for good. Free Radical was eventually cobbled up by Crytek to become its UK studio – which later ended up with financial difficulties and ended up being effectively shut down this year. It may be all the best for Star Wars fans. Battlefront is conceptually not very different from Battlefield, and DICE may well be the best studio to bring the series back to life.
Last Updated: October 20, 2014
Sir Rants A Lot Llew
October 20, 2014 at 13:14
:'(
Hammersteyn
October 20, 2014 at 13:18
Going on the standard set by DICE it sure looks 99% complete.
MakeItLegal
October 20, 2014 at 14:48
so true
Matthew Holliday
October 20, 2014 at 13:20
The footage you posted last year was much more impressive.
this “pre alpha” footage looks pretty much exactly like battlefront 2.
HisDivineOrder
October 20, 2014 at 13:30
Free Radical was notorious for delays and missed milestones. Meanwhile, Lucasarts was notorious for cancelling cool projects just before they released for reasons often unrelated to a game’s worthiness or quality while letting other games be released that had questionable quality.
So really, it’s like a battle of pathological liars and they’re both looking at me to decide which of them is being honest.
And I humbly suggest neither is.
Admiral Chief 0
October 20, 2014 at 13:31
BANANA!!!
Sir Rants A Lot Llew
October 20, 2014 at 13:32
…….
RinceThis
October 20, 2014 at 13:32
Erm… That looks… No, I’ll stay myself this time…
MakeItLegal
October 20, 2014 at 14:37
to have faith in DICE , is to have faith in Zuma the apple , it is very mis placed and uninformed
fuck Dice and fuck EA
Johan du Preez
October 20, 2014 at 17:18
This game looks crap alpha or not.
rollingmol
October 20, 2014 at 18:07
Spare me the crap battlefield 4 was 75% complete when they released it.
th3SiCn3ss
October 20, 2014 at 23:29
lol, 1994 called they want their game back……
Feplays
January 26, 2016 at 19:33
It is STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT !!!!
The Battlefront DICE is BATTLEFIELD 🙁
That’s a shame, you would ten thousand times the FREE RADICAL game launched, maybe EA Games see this game and finish it
Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/p/electronic-arts-digital-illusions-ce-lucasfilm-disney-please-finish-star-wars-battlefront-iii-and-release-it-digitally-on-steam-psn-and-xbl
https://www.change.org/p/walt-disney-the-walt-disney-company-star-wars-battlefront-community-star-wars-fans-original-battlefront-fans-free-radical-games-free-radical-games-finish-star-wars-battlefront-iii