The Rise and Fall of Star Wars Battlefront

well here it is the most eagerly awaited arcade game of the year the brand new Star Wars sound familiar let's check out the action now as Luke Skywalker your mission is to reach the Death Star and find a tiny exhaust Port that's the only spot vulnerable to your proton torpedo as play begins R2-D2 is flying so all you have to do was Blast away at the fighters and avoid the Fireballs then you take the controls Star Wars video games date back several decades its first interactive Adventure hitting arcades in 1983 dozens of other experiences followed in subsequent years with the space fairing IP delving into the FPS genre for the first time in 1995's dark Forces titles of this nature more or less fulfilled the fantasy of adventuring through George Lucas's spectacular Universe however one group of Developers in the early 2000s made building the ultimate Star Wars fans dream their mission statement the mission itself revolved around the production of Star Wars Battlefront a single player and multiplayer hybrid where players could join the factions pilot the vehicles and battle across the stunning locals that had long impacted popular culture the first Battlefront developed by pandemic Studios enjoyed great success so too did its sequel but the unfortunately cancelled Battlefront three from free radical design put the PC and console experiences on hold for the better part of a decade until Battlefield developer dice revitalized the brand in 2015 for many Battlefront faithful the Revival didn't exactly uphold the Legacy established by his forefathers Dice and publisher Electronic Arts tried changing Minds upon deploying a followup however a divisive narrative campaign and an industry shaking controversy lost dce the second Star Wars outing a lot of favor what these shortcomings entail for Battlefront future presently remains to be seen but it's obvious that EA and Company missed the mark by a wide margin this is the rise and fall of Star Wars [Music] [Music] Battlefront this video has been brought to you in part by War Thunder War Thunder is the ultimate vehicle combat Game featuring over 2,000 meticulously detailed tanks planes helicopters and ships whether you're into World War II history or Cold War era battles this game's got it all and it's available on PC Xbox series X and S and PlayStation 5 entirely for free with mind-blowing 4K Graphics immersive sound landcapes and dynamic Century spanning vehicle models War Thunder is an adrenaline packed Thrill Ride unlike anything else experience the action up close with the X-ray damage system where every component and crew member can be affected in real time customize your vehicles with hundreds of options from camouflages to historical markings take flight effortlessly with the game's intuitive Mouse aim and exhilarating yet easy to grasp system that offers unmatched depth for Aviation enthusiasts and Casual players like now why should you be playing War Thunder because there's simply Nothing Like It where else could something like this happen or this CR or even this to get started just use our Link in the description or the pinned comment you'll get exclusive bonuses like multiple premium Vehicles a premium account boosters and more so wait no more and join us on the battlefield we'd once again like to thank War Thunder for sponsoring this video Dark rain developer pandemic Studios initially explored a galaxy far far away in the Clone Wars the 2002 single player and multiplayer title that allowed users to participate in the most well-known conflict in Star Wars history according to then president of Lucas Arts Simon Jeffrey the company started eyeing Pand mic in its Battle Zone days feeling the developer talent for Designing highquality experiences would culminate in an exhilarating Star Wars Adventure pandemic's Clone Wars launched to middling reception in late 2002 around the time development began on Battlefront writing in a designer diary executive producer Greg borid said the crew settled on a primary goal for the project fairly quickly the aim was to build an online shooter for PC PlayStation 2 and Xbox that promoted strategic gameplay bolst by battles and worlds from every Star Wars film thus the bombastic action sequences seen on film would appear in game including trench warfare engagements on hath with a vision set in stone key members of pandemic's creative team wasted no time fashioning a comprehensive design document bored wrote that the ideation phase ran the gamut as developers tossed around and threw out proposals before long though the crew devised a simple yet elegant design focused on delivering what players would want while leaving room for the introduction of Novel gameplay ideas a short list of musthaves further delineated the path forward based on experience making real-time strategy games pandemic new balance needed to sit high at top its must doe list as a result developers crafted a playable build complete with every planned feature as quickly as possible ensuring they could devote several months of development time to fine-tuning the game encouraging and rewarding team playay C constituted a second bullet point manifesting in the design of battlefronts units and vehicles this emphasis on Cooperative gameplay represented another way for developers to implement the film franchise's biggest highlights for example The Empire Strikes Back depicted two characters working in tandem to dismantle an atat players would hopefully rely on similar tactics in online matches despite targeting the multiplayer crowd pandemic also prioritized a fun singleplayer campaign fully aware that countless Star Wars fans harbored no interest in online play tireless efforts were devoted to fulfilling the Star Wars fantasy to that end in so far as Consulting the films became the norm throughout [Music] production open on fire reinforcements have been the right to technology proved necessary with regard to facilitating pandemic's ambitious Vision but contrary to building new technology the company overhauled its proprietary zero engine which had existed since Battle Zone 2 Combat Commander overhauled technology aside the developers still contented with limited console memory therefore concessions in the form of shared animations across characters and weapon types were unavoidable similar compromises begat lowres versions of every character by virtue of too many characters on the screen causing slowdown memory related restrictions didn't keep developers from shooting for the stars in totality working alongside Lucas Arts afforded pandemic access to Lucas art archives for reference materials in particular the sound designed behind Battlefront played host to stunning authenticity nearly everything from the sound of vehicle engines to Blasters firing stemmed from the original films then underwent careful augmentation so as to fit within the context of game audio but sound designer Nick peek opted to record all new Foley reproduced sound effects that recreate everyday noises like footsteps or rustling clothes peek felt the new recordings were inter arguing in favor of this tactic because battlefronts action took place from the perspective of an individual unit such as a stormtrooper or rebel pilot and a two-day stent at the Skywalker Ranch helped realize this vision during their visit the Battlefront crew utilized Star Wars props on the ranch's Foley stage and made use of the film franchise's engineer and audio settings ultimately pek and Company created and implemented 12200 Foley sounds a painstaking process that injected the ambitious Pro project with a subtle layer of realism an emphasis on conveying realism proved particularly necessary for battlefronts campaign most notably the story L players journey across the Star Wars Universe in a historical context such that engaging in conflicts during the era of the prequel films gave way to the Battle of Geonosis then carried users through the Battle of Endor better still pandemic build the experience as the first Star Wars game to feature playable worlds from all five of the then existing mov chapters accessible planets even extended to rvar the ice world that never appeared on film but did Garner mention an expanded universe Cannon while the campaign brought Star Wars to life in the interactive medium Galactic Conquest constituted the real meat and potatoes of single player the mode tasked players was commanding one faction then moving from planet to planet to control the Galaxy speaking to Livewire ahead of launch executive producer Greg borid said Galactic Conquest man manifested as an answer to extending the intensity of battle Beyond on and off multiplayer encounters pandemic compared the mode to a game of Risk the more planets a player controlled the more bonuses they could bring to bear on the Battlefront Galactic Conquest additionally promoted replayability considering players could enjoy the story once as an imperial then retread those steps as a member of the Rebel Alliance but outside the Star Wars branding multiplayer constituted battlefronts Main Bard claimed in a making of featurette that pandemic had produced such an expanse of online Suite that users who invested months into it were unlikely to repeat the same exact experience as a whole battlefronts multiplayer allowed upwards of 64 players to spread chaos across various battlefields though the number of supported users dropped to 32 on Xbox and only 16 on PS2 those who hopped in could play the parts of Stormtroopers Wookies Rebel soldiers and almost everything in between it was this portion of the Battlefront offering that would become the most [Music] celebrated Battlefront didn't receive the honor of being a critical darling yet managed to Garner generally favorable reviews upon launching in September 2004 of alongside the Original Trilogy DVD box set critics and players alike viewed the online Suite as the game's greatest feat loving the thrill of stomping around the battlefield in an atst or soaring through the skies in an X-Wing while War waged several thousand feet below but even the spectacular online features felt hindered by detrimental flaws such as the awkwardness of controlling the characters a finicky camera too often made the action a chore to follow and many perceived pandemics commitment to switching between third and firstperson perspectives and afterthought considering that third person view dominated the gameplay though the solo campaign fulfilled the promise of placing players in the middle of classic Star Wars conflicts the excitement slowly ground to a halt over time this was thanks in part to incompetent AI controlled enemies who offered little in the way of challenge setting aside the Star Wars theme trimmings Battlefront passed as a middling team-based shooter its one and only saving race being the Sci-Fi universe's branding for its next turn in the Galaxy pandemic had more than enough imperfections to sift [Music] [Music] through within less than a year of its Market debut Battlefront secured its spot as the then bestselling Star Wars game of all time but even before this level of pressure began to mount pandemic Studios internally set the bar much higher mapping out an ambitious plan for a sequel not long after the first game landed in stores environment artist Rob Keenan noted in a developer diary that higher-ups presented the art Department with a projected goal for Battlefront 2 right after the 2004 installment shipped apparently said gold included 16 new locations Interiors land and space a team of producers outlined the plan each one assuming the early development role of managing a cross functional team comprising programmers designers and artists producer Philip Hong said the division helped split Focus between various disciplines thus one group had the responsibility of tackling new additions like playable Jedi characters While others prioritized core game features as expected Battlefront 2's producers spearheaded brainstorming as well thereby by distilling developer suggestions into achievable objectives so a desire to make fun Jedi dedicated combat involved the animation producer steering their group towards designing special backflip moves whereas the programmers crafted force-based choke attacks the brainstorming phases completion culminated in producers assembling a giant task list a road map guiding the studio along the remaining stages of production a similar approach worked wonders for the crew behind the sequel's multiplayer functionality the online Suites dedicated producers Captain teams made up of programmers artists designers and QA developers once the playable features were up and running the different multiplayer squads battled each other in weekly matches giving participants an opportunity to report exploits bugs and balancing suggestions to lead producers who would then analyze the feedback with other department heads and the director it proved an effective method one that ensured Battlefront 2's online features regularly underwent examination and iteration and given the the sheer scale of multiplayer pandemic couldn't afford not to expend extensive amounts of energy in this particular Department some of the biggest multiplayer changes between games included the greater number of levels the addition of space-based combat and bigger player counts PS2 enjoyed the most significant boost with respect to the latter going from hosting 16 players in Battlefront to 24 in its successor meanwhile Xbox and PC continue to Support 32 users and 64 users respectively but the introduction of immersive Space Battles especially flipped the Battlefront formula on its head opening the door to dog fighting and capital Ship boarding the much touted immersion specifically showed in a player's ability to Pilot a TIE fighter land on a rebel frigate that exit their starship and start battling Rebel soldiers on foot pandemic's allnew space combat system worked so intricately that the same TIE fighter pilot could then hijack an X-Wing and fly off towards other rebel ships to give them a taste of their own Firepower the Studio's mission of delivering space-based Encounters in fun and engaging ways fueled these Dynamic situations according to game designer Joe Shackleford doing as much while also bringing battlefronts open-ended qualities to space proved difficult no challenge could prevent the team from pushing the envelope though as such part of its push for fun dog fighting mechanics revolved around indulging a variety of play Styles hence the decision to diversify the selection of playable star Fighters ship types broke into four categories Scouts counted among the fastest multi-purpose Fighters covered dog fighting and capital ship assaults bombers constituted The Heavy Hitters and transports were perfect for boarding enemy vessels pandemic outfitted each Starship with a unique personality of sorts defined by speed weapon capabilities and the like the Hope was that users would have no trouble finding a ship that complemented their preferred style of play a critical choice in some respects given how often players would sit in a [ __ ] pit across the single player multiplayer and dog fighting Centric starf fighter assault modes well done jents with flying like that the Republic is well on its way to Victory to some extent the single player offering acted as a multiplayer Gateway flying Starships in the campaign helped use develop a familiarity with flight controls in competitive modes for instance the campaign served multiple purposes though evidenced by pandemic investing more effort into producing narrative content for the sequel it only made sense then that the most conspicuously absent ingredient from the original game finally entered the fry playable Force wielding Jedi characters in a 2004 interview with Livewire executive producer Greg Bor admitted the team constantly debated the pros and cons of adding lightsabers and Jedi to the first Battlefront It ultimately came down to a question of balance which the Jedi would disrupt because of their overpowered abilities fortunately pandemic sorted through its concerns for Battlefront 2 wherein the integration of playable Jedi benefited the solo and multiplayer portions playing the likes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Vader had become a reality in the world of battlefronts on top of injecting new playable characters and their Unique Mechanics the development crew also recognized the need for improving existing gameplay features namely ground vehicles vehicles in the first game were behemoths that absorbed a ridiculous amount of Firepower before succumbing to destruction pandemic learned its lesson and made adjustments accordingly Battlefront 2 adorned vehicles with critical hit points providing infantry men on the ground with a Target that if hit just right could down enemy machines and roughly two blows mitigating concerns about the potential lease of fighting off hulking combat Vehicles Dan Nani insisted there was still challenge to be found in spotting the the critical systems and actually hitting them meanwhile vehicle Pilots earned a similar power boost between games to counterbalance the Newfound strengths of ground units unlike the Troopers fighting on foot pandemic made sure some vehicle ordinance types could deal enough damage to eliminate fellow Combat Machines with one strike from the outside looking in Battlefront developers had taken every critique leveled against the first game and improved upon it tfold their labor showed in the final product enough that the sequel later earned consideration as one of the greatest Star Wars games in franchise history Lucas Arts revealed Battlefront 2 at Star Wars celebration in April 205 scheduling the title for a fall release on PC PS2 and Xbox news of a PSP Port from Savage entertainment took the web by surprise during that Year's E3 event Savage's PSP version promised a paired down Adventure featuring many campaigns as well as up to four-player competitive and Cooperative multiplayer but even the lower scale iteration proved a hassle to optimize given the portable devices technological constraints which offered some insight into why the PSP skew earned the worst reviews of the bunch the PC and console experiences fared far better yet buckled beneath the weight of a few noteworthy shortcomings Battlefront 2 received a marketing push not unlike its predecessor launching alongside the DVD release of episode 3 Revenge of the Sith purchasing the DVD gave customers access to a Battlefront 2 demo on Xbox with two playable levels a shrew tactic that leveraged Star wars's multi-pronged Market domination though pandemic hardly needed a demo to entice audiences the shooter predictably earned average to above average reviews the lowest marks lamenting that while the sequel outshined the 2004 project it did so marginally for one the single player modes presented more of a challenge the second time around around and the story campaign greatly benefited from a strong narrative backbone however not everyone could see past the still Troublesome enemy Ai and redundant missions yet reviewers and players agreed the combat heavy action and team-based multiplayer options remained A Cut Above the Rest bolstered by Fun Ship Battles and the Advent of Jedi characters these positives combined with refined controls and a polished presentation helped Battlefront 2 leave an indelible mark on Star Wars media the sequel's reception arguably played a part in the commercial success as well amid its bid to purchase pandemic publisher Electronic Arts reported a sales total of 6 million copies sold as of late 2007 unfortunately while commercial Victory secured a third entry unforeseen circumstances prevented the product from ever seeing the light of day beyond gameplay leaks got all that sort of management stuff that we want out of online Shooters the only thing that I would say that I would really love for it to do is is to not load as you're going from the stuff that's on a planet side and then you're going off into space imagine if you could hop into a spaceship and just fly in I think we're going to see that in next it's always a great view when you actually open up this elevator for the first time that's right LucasArts reportedly mandated a 12-month turnaround time for the development of Battlefront 2 even with the hectic release schedule few would argue against the notion that pandemic produced Stellar results as opposed to immediately beginning work on Battlefront 3 however the Los angeles-based outfit entered production on Mercenaries 2 world in Flames meanwhile Lucas Arts handed stewardship of its popular multiplayer franchise to time Splitters developer free radical design the Publishers leadership likely considered free radical a smart bet given its pedigree with Shooters and the fact that key members had credits on another seminal multiplayer game golden i7 for years the public knew next to nothing about Battlefront 3 yet according to reports free radical harbored Larger than Life Ambitions for the project the third title allegedly prioritized huge battles wherein players could seamlessly transition between aerial fights and groundbased skirmishes what's more the plan story campaign followed a pair of force sensitive clones X1 and X2 depicted as a clone who defected during Order 66 X2 blossomed under the training of ROM the Jedi Master and Clone Wars General who appeared in the Force Unleashed on the other hand Battlefront 3 was said to present X1 as an unwavering Empire devite free radicals efforts persisted from mid2 2006 through the end of 2008 when Lucas Arts unceremoniously terminated Battlefront 3 development the cancellation constituted the final nail in the coffin for a studio that had internally battled Financial woses for quite some time thus free radical entered Administration a state similar to to bankruptcy in December 2008 but details about behind the scenes hardships remain marred in conflicting reports from former free radical leads and a Lucas Arts veteran the first Glimpse that what could have been the third Battlefront leaked online in April 2012 via a YouTube video showcasing pre-alpha footage from March 2008 copyright holders eventually forced the video's removal fueling requests for an explanation about what had gone arai free radical co-founder David do and former audio director Graham Norgate provided Insight in Euro Gamer's May 2012 profile on the Studio's demise do divulged that progress on Battlefront 3 suddenly halted amid a management shakeup at LucasArts company president Jim Ward exited in January 2008 for personal reasons Howard Rothman filled in on an interim basis before ex Electronic Arts executive darl Rodriguez took over as president that April do claimed the leadership Shuffle resulted in unexpected budget cuts and canceled projects to which Battlefront 3 fell victim during this period free radical went from regularly convening with passionate Lucas Arts representatives to meeting with in Do's words Psychopaths who insisted on having lawyers present Norgate echoed his colleague sentiment accusing Lucas Art's leadership at the time of sabotaging the studio and its Star Wars Endeavor the audio lead cited 6 months of withheld Milestone payments as evidence and argued that it seemed the goal was to let free radical limp along until the money finally ran out Talk of the ill fated Battlefront sequel resurfaced in November 2012 courtesy of games tm's interview with free radical co-founder Steve Ellis while speaking with the magazine Ellis insisted the game sat at 99% completion when LucasArts pulled the plug it apparently required nothing but another pass for bug fixes then promptly fell apart over unspecified financial reasons one person who'd been staffed at Lucas Arts during the Battlefront 3 period anonymously contested Ellis's claim in a Gamespot interview The Source called BS on the 99% complete quote arguing free radical managed to achieve 75% of a mediocre game addressing the J and Norgate comments the Lucas Ard alums said their bosses were desperate for a nextg Battlefront and wouldn't have dared sabotage the project the problem lied primarily with free radical they asserted alleging the studio repeatedly missed dates and deliveries prompting Jim Ward and Daryl Rodriguez to sign off on multiple Goodwill Milestone payments to keep production intact throughout the Gamespot report the anonymous X developer cited three distinct reasons for Battlefront 3's demise firstly free radical staffers were simultaneously deep in development on Hayes which was laid to Market by one year and thus siphoned resources that should have otherwise been reserved for Battlefront secondly the person believed the crew either underestimated or misrepresented their ability to meet deadlines and produce a quality and result and finally the team supposedly started missing Milestones that Lucas Arts already rescheduled engendering a loss in confidence at the publisher in discussing all three factors The Source attacked free radicals competence and integrity once noting that while pandemic similarly fell behind on Milestones on some occasions it was at least upfront the Battlefront 3 team however often missed the mark sometimes due to Quality related concerns for example by December 2007 AI didn't work across most levels additionally the 360 build had no functionality throughout much of that same year the most scathing accusations centered around Hayes the so-called Halo Killer Free radical developed for Ubisoft Gamespot source theorized that free radical operated somewhat of a Ponzi scheme at the expense of Lucas Arts whereby payments meant for Battlefront were instead funneled into the last bit of Hay's production as far as the ex-staffer was concerned hay being a PS3 exclusive explained why Battlefront 3's Xbox iteration didn't work that the UB Ubisoft published shooter launched in May 2008 to abysmal review scores reportedly tanked any confidence Lucas ards had in its own dealings with the baguer development studio and as 2008 persisted so too did the supposed skip deadlines leaving the Star Wars company with no choice but to permanently shove its third Battlefront title The Source said there was plenty of blame to throw around for the game's tragic failings yet contended that whitewashed versions of events shouldn't be allowed to devalue the part free radical played Ellis denied every claim in his own response to Gamespot the free radical co-founder bed at the Ponzi scheme accusation given that Ubisoft foot the bill for Hayes and increased the budget when the team requested a delay furthermore Ellis candidly admitted to withholding details about easy to fix hiccups from publishing Partners early in the firm's history however he maintained free radical engaged in no such practice with Lucas Arts according to him the two companies worked well together the pair were so aligned in fact that Ellis claimed Lucas AR negotiated a deal for the studio to develop Battlefront 4 in December 2007 responding to the 75% of a mediocre game comment Ellis invoked Battlefront 3's well-received gameplay Leakes as a testament to the Quality experience that players would sadly never lay their Hands-On he had no problem playing the numbers game either calling the 75% figure a false representation of a project that hit content complete status prior to cancellation by Ellis's estimation the Battlefront sequel merely required another three to 4 weeks of must fix bug squashing in terms of the reported Strife between the companies trouble didn't arise until the 2008 leadership shakeup rocked the legendary publisher Ellis bore no knowledge of the company's internal operations but said the management team free radical partnered with at the start of Battlefront 3 had left by mid2 2008 layoffs plagued the Publishers in house groups and numerous works and progress were suddenly canned from that point forward meanwhile the impact on free radical resulted in constant Milestone rejections as Ellis told it Lucas Arts terminated the Battlefront 4 deal first as it couldn't fund both Endeavors Battlefront 3 Hit The Cutting Room floor sometime thereafter the one constant between the conflicting reports suggests Battlefront 3 never stood a chance once a new guard took over Lucas Arts regardless of the specifics though leaked footage and modded gameplay builds indicate free radical at the very least had something special in the works of course the third installments downfall didn't necessarily Mark the end of battlefronts Lucas arera an agreement with Sniper Elite Creator Rebellion developments brought Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron exclusively to PSP in 2007 and after Battlefront 3 was cancelled Lucas Arts turned to the oxford-based development house once more in an effort to have it finalize free radicals project speaking with vg247 an anonymous Rebellion developer Shar shared that the studio was already working on a PS2 Port of free radicals Battlefront 3 prior to the ladder's cancellation and the plan was to use this as a foundation for rebellion's own Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game thanks to this approach the studio was able to promise low production costs and a quick turnaround however while the PS2 and PSP outings were set to come out in April Rebellion realized it couldn't meet the schedule for the Xbox 360 and PS3 releases thus plans for both were scrapped and in May the game was renamed Star Wars Battlefront Elite Squadron even though this title did eventually go on to see release on both the PSP and Nintendo DS in November of 2009 Lucas Arts ended up cancelling the PS2 iteration deeming it too challenging to Market neither Renegade Squadron nor Elite Squadron pushed the envelope although the latter did retain large parts of the campaign and gameplay features such as ground to space combat that free radical had been working on for Battlefront 3 providing players with an interesting allbe had paired down glimpse of what could have been Canon and open fire on the enemy capital ship the cancellation of free radicals Battlefront 3 had dire consequences for Lucas Arts it made the publisher reluctant to invest in major console projects going forward even though it remained Keen on pursuing another entry in the multiplayer franchise as a result Lucas Arts narrowed its scope and this in turn led to the greenlighting of several significantly scaled down Battlefront projects a download only title for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 by the name of Star Wars Battlefront online was in development throughout the start of 2010 by Socom developer slant 6 games aiming for an early 2011 launch however it became clear after a few months that the title wouldn't be ready by the end of the year prpt prompting Lucas Arts to cease its production around roughly the same time Lucas Arts had internally started development on the Xbox Live arcade game Star Wars first assault which was to be the first in a Trilogy of releases that would eventually culminate in the long awaited Star Wars Battlefront 3 this approach aimed to avoid the gigantic scope and over ambition that plagued free radicals project an online only firstperson shooter set during the Galactic Civil War first assault would have focused on 8 versus 8 infantry combat without vehicles or for sensitive characters players could create classes akin to Call of Duty and partake in game modes similar to those featured in the likes of OverWatch and Team Fortress 2 such as attrition payload and sabotage eventually first assault was to be followed up by version 2 a year after its planned 2013 rollout this new version which Drew assets from a canceled Wii U starf Fighter game named wingman would have broaden the scope Beyond infantry combat with the addition of vehicles and other Battlefront features in 2015 the plan Trilogy would have reached its conclusion with the release of Battlefront 3 expanding on first assault and version 2 by introducing a single player campaign and Space Battles every one of these undertakings paved the bumpy road towards the next phase of multiplayer Star Wars Adventures but few could have predicted where this road would go next Disney's historic acquisition of Lucas film in October 2012 for $4 billion sent shock waves throughout the entertainment industry which reverberated well into 2013 when the company shut down Lucas Arts a statement from Disney categorized the surprising decision as an attempt to minimize risk thereby shifting Lucas Arts away from internal development to refocus exclusively on licensing layoffs consequently swept across the organ organization and the then unannounced Star Wars first assault version 2 and Battlefront 3 Trilogy project along with much anticipated games like Star Wars 1313 ceased production games industry pundits and enthusiasts may have expected the licensing model to favor a greater number of third-party developers yet the agreement Disney negotiated for Star Wars kept the galaxy far far away from any other entity than Electronic Arts the two- in the exclusive right in May 2013 and though the ink hadn't dried June 2013 brought about the announcement of battlefronts return EA publicly presented the news during its pre3 conference showcasing a short teaser trailer set on the ice planet of hath dice the Swedish Studio behind Battlefield was named the reboots developer meaning the Frostbite 3 engine powering Battlefield 4 but also helped Breathe new life into star wars's dormant shooter franchise interestingly dce involvement didn't happen by Design executive producer Patrick Bach divulged during a bafta 2013 talk that he and other Battlefield developers coincidentally discussed Battlefront fade around the time of vaa and Disney's quiet dealings the crew apparently joked about Battlefront being a battlefield ripoff that should have been placed in dice's hands from the start rather fortuitously Vach and dice CEO Carl Magnus soon thereafter found themselves deep in conversation with EA's executive VP Patrick soderland when he mentioned partnering with Disney on future Star Wars projects soderland later told CVG that to his surprise the pair instantly made known their interest in Reviving Battlefront the EA executive had always assumed dice preferred to maintain its track record of working on original Ip but the battlefield Creator and Battlefront seemed a match made in heaven understandably leadership hastily greenlit the proposed reboot very close but we know there will be 808s well we'll see yeah there yeah yeah when growing up in the 70s and seeing those movies it feels like that's a natural part right um but I mean it's going to be our take on what Battlefront is so um now when we move forward and start talking more about the game in the future we'll you have to wait and see but throughout the months following the initial reveal bosses from EA and dice spoke fondly of what the newly assembled Battlefront group had in store Patrick soderland mentioned in a euro gamer interview that developers had every intention of honoring the Brand's past with pandemic in addition to peppering and dice's unique style this thinking explained the Battlefront name's return sanss and attached number three it represented a rebirth of the brand as soderland described it elsewhere and the public would spend quite some time wondering what that necessitated apart from the occasional teaser a full-blown reveal for Battlefront remained Under Wraps until the first Gameplay trailer arrived at Star Wars celebration in April 2015 dice had its head buried deep in the Star Wars Universe all the while going to Great Lengths to design as authentic an experience as possible such an effort manifested in the shooter's stunning Graphics made possible in part by a digital capture process known as photogrametry which involved using thousands of digital pictures of real objects to produce in-game assets speaking during their GDC 2016 presentation technical art director Kenneth Brown and Lead environment artist Andrew Hamilton candidly address the skepticism of dice leadership yet recalled how mins were changed when higher-ups realized the efficiency of building quality assets with photogrametry for comparison sake developers found the more novel process generated assets and half the time it took with a traditional method employed for Battlefield 4 photogrametry had a few tedious qualities too Chief among them the replication of foliage due to the process's inadequacy of spotting details from objects such as grass regardless changes to dice's established methods streamlined development but despite increasingly efficient techniques time restrictions still begat limitations that prevented the Battlefront reboot from reaching a height of its powers Rebels are escaping nice shooting always get [Music] my we will bring order to the Galaxy EA charged full steam ahead by touting Battlefront as the next big shooter after setting a November 2015 due date to coincide with the force awakens theatrical debut onlookers were especially taken by dice's decision to Buck gameplay traditions in contrast to Call of Duty multiplayer classes sat on the sidelines and old school style power-ups littered the maps Battlefront replaced the typical class model with star cards that determined the player character's ability set when combined into a hand the more a player progressed the more cards they unlocked allowing for the use of of jetpacks Shields and so on combinations of cards selected ahead of battle worked in the same manner as loadouts thereby matching a user's preferred play style meanwhile power-ups fill the map as collectible pickups designed to modify the pre-selected abilities interesting multiplayer related news aside dice still had to contend with concerns regarding in-game purchases to which design director Nicholas FAS plainly responded by telling Gamespot that no microtransactions would feature in the reboot the currency system focused exclusively on performance guaranteeing fans only needed to play the game and complete challenges to earn in-game credits ultimately dice's first cracket Battlefront hit the right notes yet fell short of expectations when it landed in November 2015 its remarkable sound design and Graphics received the highest praise the large scale battles and Star Wars themed elements served as the icing on top with special deference given in some ways because of the game's proximity to the force awakens oddly enough this push for proximity heralded the most significant critique against Battlefront middling reviews targeted the multiplayer shooter from all sides though countless players were particularly disappointed in the lack of a story campaign EA's executive VP Patrick soderland later informed investors that omitting single player was a conscious decision so dice could ship the game side by side with the force awakens to get the strongest possible impact the Executive also addressed the mid-70s Metacritic score during the Investor's call and in doing so promised the low rating would be cured not even the implementation of a campaign could rescue Battlefront from the controversy that lay [Music] [Music] ahead on the day of Battlefront 2015's arrival EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgenson teased that the 10year Star Wars deal would allow for multiple Battlefront games across different genres for PC consoles and mobile devices it may have seemed bullish but the numbers soon proved the publisher had every reason to believe that Disney and Lucas Art's partnership would exceed its wildest expectations in a May 2016 earnings call where Jorgenson touted bigger and better worlds for the sequel CEO Andrew Wilson boasted of dice first title shipping 14 million copies up from the previously forecasted 10 million units Battlefront 2 was a go the companies highlighted as much during EA live in June 2016 thanks to a look ahead video spotlighting all of EA Star Wars projects the second Battlefront briefly appeared as dice acknowledged that sister Studios motive and Criterion would contribute their talents details about the Three Studio collaboration surfaced during Star Wars celebration 20 2017 wherein fans learned that while dice managed multiplayer and Criterion built Space Battles and vehicles EA motive had accepted the task of creating a campaign the linear story followed the 30-year journey of elite Imperial Soldier Iden Vero starting from the Return of the Jedi final moments on Endor and ending aboard the retribution in the force awakens after conversing with Lucas film Representatives creative director Mark Thompson said EA motive realized the Galactic Civil War didn't come to a close on Endor inspiring the thought that more stories deserve to be told during this period the motive crew imagined Iden versio and members of The Inferno Squad escaping the secluded Moon and seeking Vengeance following Emperor Palpatine's death such Pursuit would see the Commandos joined forces with Remnant soldiers loyal to the Empire who'd later reappear as the new film trilogy's first order exploring the heroes of the Galactic Empire struck motive as a good way to center a point of view typically reserved for the expanded universe Thompson specifically recalled the idea being derived from Battlefront 2015's tyin novel Twilight company which featured chapters told from the point of view of an imperial Stormtrooper Lucas film story team loved the pitch leaving motive to jump over the hurdle of marrying the campaign to gameplay according to Thompson closely following battlefronts design philosophy of accessibility with depth helped accomplish this feat at its core single player constituted an onboarding experience for online as a result the campaign's AI classes borrowed from the multiplayer classes even the star card system made the leap to single player Dice and Criterion also had their work cut out for them chiefly because the teams raised the foundations laid in 2015 the 2017 installment introduced customizable Trooper classes to better facilitate team play further widening the gap between the two newer battlefronts pickups from the first project also lost favor based on a desire to expand hero play within each battle Criterion Matt Webster argued that while becoming a hero from Pickups felt amazing It ultimately offered a brief experience for a lucky few increasing the scope of gameplay to provide a system where users could reach hero status without merely picking up tokens had the potential to elevate the multiplayer Loop these changes all made for intriguing talking points ahead of Battlefront 2's release ensuring that even the beta launched to much anticipation however the October 20 17 beta did not elicit the intended response instead of sharing screenshots and gameplay Clips highlighting the sequels improvements open Beta participants flocked to social media with loud protestations about predatory loot boxes in the epoch of microtransaction controversy Electronic Arts became Public Enemy Number One sadly the Star Wars Battlefront 2 Beta is over and EA is now tearing the results apart and addressing fan concerns specifically it's addressing problems with its loot box economy so far the most epic Star Wars song of 2017 is the harrowing tale of Battlefront 2's contentious loot boxes versus everybody like I can't tell you the amount of times I got like a a goddamn Stormtrooper pose from this to like this like two of those things I've played the game myself I have my own reservations on it as a game mechanically I'm enjoying my time with it do you know what I'm not enjoying though loot boxes and neither is the rest of the world bel's gaming Authority is investigating whether or not loot boxes like those found in OverWatch and Battlefront TI should be classified as gambling this game is a Star Wars themed online casino designed to lure kids into spending money K well first we don't call them loot boxes I think that was whatever you wish to apply to them do you consider them ethical so what we look at as as surprise mechanics um but I think it's important to look at this so uh if you go to if you go to Beta feedback regarding loot boxes or loot crates in Battlefront 2 quickly morphed into payto win accusations in addition to the retail price tag the squel invited players to spend extra money on crates that provided random bonuses the randomized rewards ranged from useful ability modifiers to emotes understandably the issue was that instead of grinding ingame to earn bonuses that rewarded say damage boosts users would dump cash into the chance of of winning the same upgrade hence the Pay to Win claims worse still some suspected the game's design purposefully made the grind more difficult so fans could Advance by fortuitously buying higher tier bonuses deeper concerns called out EA for promoting glorified gambling since those who spent money only to receive an emote would likely feel inclined to Fork over more funds in hopes of unlocking Epic Level Buffs developers made adjustments in time for the 10-hour trial version that went live days ahead of launch for EA and origin access members during those 10 hours users realized how little the changes mattered one redditor spent $80 on in-game currency called crystals but learned Darth Vader could only be purchased with credits currency obtained through in-game matches an EA representative commented on the thread telling fans the system was designed to provide players with a sense of Pride and accomplishment for unlocking different Heroes that comment infamously became the most downvoted Post in Reddit history within a matter of hours the resulting backlash persisted for a little while longer on the eve of release a Disney chairman reportedly phoned EA and disclosed the displeasure Disney Executives felt towards the backlash reflecting poorly on their Marquee brand after all accusations of gambling leveled against a family-friendly property seemed bad for Optics and it didn't help that Belgium's gaming commission launched an investigation into loot crates consequently EA announced the last minute revers removing the randomized boxes hours before the sequel hit stores review copies sent out prior to the unprecedented decision still bore the weight of a heavily monetized experience evidenced in review scores the controversial monetization practices distracted from the refined gameplay and applause-worthy multiplayer improvements and though critics and players agreed the story campaign left much to be desired it felt like an unforced error had overshadowed a decent effort Financial Chief Blake jorgan s acknowledged the blow to EA's bottom line in January 2018 blaming the loot box Fiasco for the game selling a still impressive 9 million copies as opposed to the projected 10 million he deemed the ordeal a learning opportunity then informed The Wall Street Journal of plans to reinstate microtransactions notably Jorgenson's promise never took hold as a March 2018 update purged paid loot crates from Battlefront 2 EA asserted the changes marked a major step towards revamping the bager game which would further improve courtesy of additional updates and over time the company delivered eventually introducing a Han Solo movie expansion Clone Wars add-ons and a rise of Skywalker chapter such support likely helped Propel the title's market performance as of October 2019 EA's Battlefront Endeavors had sold a combined total of 33 million copies but just like 2005's Battlefront 2 a third game would not follow the meteoric success [Music] [Music] Anonymous sources familiar with EA's operations told Kotaku the publisher shelved a Battlefront spin-off in Spring 2019 the project code named Viking allegedly spawned from a financial hole that needed filling after EA canel two Star Wars games in 2017 and 2018 project rag tag from Uncharted Creator Amy Henning and visceral games constituted the first of the Publishers terminated Star Wars titles the second code named Orca was an open world Adventure hmed by EA Vancouver sources claimed that when orca's development ceased the Vancouver outfit landed the Viking gig a smaller project planned for launch alongside the nextg PlayStation and Xbox consoles in late 2020 developers conceived Viking as an open world Battlefront spin-off then began designing prototypes uk-based burnout Studio Criterion joined the effort as lead developer around this time tricky circumstances considering the two firms worked in drastically different time zones reportedly criterion's ambitious ideas strained the project one person insisted there were too many cooks in the kitchen upon realizing that shipping Viking in 18 months had become unfeasible EA Executives cut their losses and AED the spin-off early in 2019 three remained an unlucky number for the Battlefront property for a series that altered the course of interactive Star Wars media Battlefront rarely enjoyed the opportunity of achieving its full potential time constraints corporate shakeups and greed backed the franchise into several corners but now that EA's lost exclusive rights and Lucas film games is licensing the IP to other third parties the future of Battlefront could go Myriad directions perhaps EA and dice will get another attempt or maybe Lucas film games will steer the Reigns elsewhere in any event whatever comes next must contend with a grand and regrettably tainted [Music] Legacy [Music] we'd like to thank War Thunder for sponsoring this video don't forget to click the link in the description to get a head start on your journey and we hope you will have a blast playing War Thunder thank you for watching we'd like to take this time to thank by name the generous patrons who have pledged to our Hall of Fame reward here Alex Moretti and those currently subscribe to our producer reward tier Brock Piro Dar secone Get Wrecked doc Jonathan Kira May Landy K Hayes Mario Herrera milkshake if you enjoy our content please consider subscribing to our Channel and backing us on [Music] [Music] patreon

Channel: GVMERS

Views: 354,767

Keywords: Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars Battlefront 3, Star Wars Battlefront 4, The History of Star Wars Battlefront, Star Wars Battlefront Documentary, Battlefront EA, Battlefront LucasArts, Battlefront Free Radical, Battlefront Cancelled

Id: 5vwP2dlRlXk

Length: 54min 19sec (3259 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 29 2023