Multiple Studios Reportedly Enter Early Talks on Star Wars Battlefront 3

Talks are reportedly underway at the top levels, and the list of possible developers keeps changing.

If you've been waiting years for a proper follow-up to the modern Battlefront games, this week gave you a reason to get excited. A rumor is circulating that Star Wars Battlefront 3 is being discussed seriously, and for anyone in the Star Wars community, it's about as good as a rumor gets. The idea of a real third game has long been a dream, and hearing it resurface is a big deal.

The report comes from an industry insider and points to a genuine push from Lucasfilm and Disney to make the game. It matters less who is behind it than that you can play it. According to the insider, real discussions are underway about Star Wars Battlefront 3, and a few studios have either been approached or are pitching the idea themselves.

The studio list has shifted significantly. It started with two names, grew to three, and one may already be out. Bungie was mentioned first, along with EA through DICE. The first version of the story pointed to one of those two. After that, other people in the Star Wars community and a few insiders said they had heard similar things, which suggested this wasn't a rumor you could dismiss. 

As the day went on, the story changed again, and Respawn entered the picture. In that version, Respawn and DICE would stay within the EA family, while Bungie either plays no role or helps out on certain things without taking on a major role. That's roughly the range of possibilities right now.

Naming is part of the story too. Studios seem stuck in a trap where they never make a third game, so they reboot instead. You end up with a new game called Battlefront, then a second one, and then they take it all away. If Star Wars Battlefront 3 ends up being the real name and the real game, it would be a monumental day for the fanbase. Bring it on, and make it happen.

Before you get carried away, it's worth looking at how the news is being described.

Right now, everything is in the pitching and approach phase, which means this is a long way off. A studio hasn't even been confirmed, so contracts probably haven't been drawn up, and a budget likely hasn't been worked out. Nobody knows yet if development would take five years.

Hopefully it would be shorter than that, but we aren't at the stage where anyone can say. For now, Star Wars Battlefront 3 is an idea being shopped around, not a game in production. As for who should do it, DICE makes sense. There's familiarity there, and fans know the studio's work. You might have assumed, like plenty of people did, that the studio would be too busy to take this on.

With Respawn possibly helping, it could figure out a way. The studio now looks like the front-runner, so that assumption was probably wrong, and that's okay. Bungie is the more interesting option. A lot of people aren't happy with what the studio has become in recent years, and shooters aren't for everyone.

Destiny and Destiny 2 are huge, though, and that deserves respect, even with Destiny 2 in its tail end and not everyone on board with the studio anymore. Still, handing it this project could be a smart move. One commentator noted that this is exactly why a studio like that is worth keeping around: an opportunity like this can come along even if they don't land it. PlayStation would be wise to go after it too.

Right now, a team that size is working on Marathon alone, and that won't work out. 

Offering them a shot at Star Wars Battlefront 3 could do a lot of good for both PlayStation and the studio, since they still carry some clout. On the mechanical side, the team still knows how to build a shooter. Looking at Destiny, Destiny 2, and even Marathon, you can see a long list of mistakes, from corporate and management decisions to how the games performed.

But making a really good shooter is a separate skill, and they still seem to have it. That's why you could argue the studio should be the front-runner, even though it doesn't sound like it. The EA option offers a safety net, and most people would feel more confident with them in charge.

Bungie probably offers the higher upside, while the other choice is more predictable. Either route feels fine, as long as Star Wars Battlefront 3 gets made. There's also a redemption angle here, because the developer genuinely turned Star Wars Battlefront II around.

By the end of its run, the community felt it was at its peak, and it was probably the series' best era. It may not be the best Battlefront-related game ever made, but the team had it right at the end. With Padmé, Ahsoka, and other content that could have arrived, everything was right there. That felt like the best version of the team and the best version of the game, and then the studio ripped it away to move on to Battlefield 2042.

The timing is interesting, too. Just a few days ago, with Galactic Racer arriving, you could find articles quoting senior Lucasfilm people saying they want to take risks. They talked about making games like Zero Company and Galactic Racer while still putting out the big ones.

Lucasfilm named Battlefront alongside big franchises it wants next to smaller experiences.

They even name-dropped Battlefront alongside titles like Knights of the Old Republic and the Jedi trilogy as the kind of large game they always want to have next to smaller experiences. The thinking was that big releases with huge player bases can sit alongside niche projects that focus tightly on one idea, and projects like Zero Company can work wonders in that role.

Two or three days later, you've got rumors about Star Wars Battlefront 3, exactly as it should play out. You want a mix of a Galactic Racer and a big-name shooter with a guaranteed audience, with Zero Company-style experiences filling the gaps. It's hard not to wonder whether the executives were already thinking about the project when they made those comments.

If so, it's a good timeline to be living in, and fans finally get something they've wanted for years. The community has kept Star Wars Battlefront II alive for years. Even after the game was abandoned, player numbers sometimes exceeded launch levels because fans rallied around it.

EA's Star Wars Battlefront II is an incredible game, and it was always good. The start was very rough, and you never want that to happen again, but the foundation was strong, and the team figured it out as it went along. That's a big reason a third game feels like the right next step, and Star Wars Battlefront 3 would let them build on that work.

After going back and forth, the case for the more familiar option keeps getting stronger.

Giving it to the other contender would feel different, and the PlayStation angle would be a savvy move for the company, especially given Marathon’s current state. But if you had to choose, DICE deserves the chance to make the third game and put everything it learned from Star Wars Battlefront II into it all.

Many of the people who worked on the last one have since left, so they'd need to bring many of them back. Years ago, some of them said they'd make Star Wars Battlefront 3 if the team ever came back together. Now's the moment, and the studio should bring them back. Lucasfilm has said it wants both big releases and smaller experiences, and if the studio talks turn into a deal, Star Wars Battlefront 3 would be the clearest sign yet that the plan is working.