The future of Star Wars Battlefront: Bespin, Death Star, Rogue One and beyond
Get the lowdown on what's to come for EA's massive movie franchise shooter.
Star Wars Battlefront managed to successfully build around the excitement for Star Wars: The Force Awakens before becoming one of 2015's best-selling games.
Publisher EA, developer DICE and partner LucasFilm haven't let up since then - and though there's no new Star Wars Battlefront title coming in 2016, there's a string of downloadable add-ons in the pipeline. As is often the case with in-development DLC, news is sometimes a little more scarce than the hype machine for all-new games, but we're gathering it all up here, including the first hints at what to expect from an eventual Star Wars Battlefront 2.
But first let's look at the upcoming DLC around the Death Star battle, the battles of the upcoming movie Rogue One, and everything you need to know about the recently-launched Bespin add-on.
Star Wars Battlefront Bespin add-on - out now for PS4, Xbox One and PC
The Bespin Update for Star Wars Battlefront sees players dropped into the iconic Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back. Newly playable as a hero is Cloud City administrator Lando Calrissian complete with the likeness of Billy-Dee Williams. Also newly added is bounty hunter Dengar, who hardcore Star Wars fans will recognize as one of the line-up of bounty hunters who recieves orders from Darth Vader in the same film. Dengar has also appeared in his younger days in The Clone Wars spin-off.
The Bespin DLC of course also adds the Cloud City itself, with five maps set within various recognisable areas of it. From the squeaky clean white hallways that were home to laser battles with Stormtroopers to the dank chambers where Han Solo found himself frozen in Carbonite.
The DLC also includes the Bespin Cloud Car ships as a playable vehicle, a new game mode known as Sabotage, and several new pieces of equipment in the form of weapons and star cards.
Bespin is available now for $15 and is free to owners of the Star Wars Battlefront season pass, which'll currently set you back $50. There's also some free trial periods coming to test it out if you want to hold fire.
All about the Star Wars Battlefront Death Star Expansion
One of the big criticisms of Star Wars Battlefront on its original launch was how the game lacked the space-bound battles of the original.
It's clear that the game wasn't built with that in mind and most fans assumed we'd have to wait for a sequel for full-blown space battles. But EA and DICE have managed to surprise with the announcement of the Death Star expansion, which sort of works to provide the best of both worlds.
The Death Star expansion first debuted in full at the Star Wars Celebration Europe event in July 2016 with the very first footage of the Death Star battles in action - take a look:
What's new in the Star Wars Battlefront Death Star Expansion?
The main selling point of the expansion is the addition of a full-blown space battle in the form of the iconic attack on the Death Star from the original Star Wars. It's not all space-bound, as some part of the action will also take place on board the station, something not seen in the movie version of the Death Star assault. And as with previous Battlefront expansions there'll be multiple maps based on the same overall environment.
The Death Star levels in Star Wars Battlefront will also feature a 'multi stage' design, meaning that as matches progress the mission parameters will adjust accordingly. This means that at one stage of the level you might be fighting above the surface of the Death Star in your X-Wing and in the next stage you'll dive into the trench for the classic trench run as shown in the movies.
There's also two new hero characters coming as part of the expansion. Top of the list is Chewbacca, whose presence has been sorely missing so far, but also added is Bossk. For those who don't know him, Bossk is another of the badass-looking bounty hunters seen taking orders from Darth Vader in Episode 5. He's been expanded on significantly in the Star Wars expanded universe, and will come with his own unique skills here.
DICE also promises the Death Star expansion will come with new vehicles, weapons and star cards though it hasn't yet revealed what they are in full. We do know one vehicle addition, however - Darth Vader's TIE Advanced fighter. Promotional images seem to suggest Luke's Red 5 X-Wing is also in.
We'll update this heading with more confirmed additions as they're announced, so stay tuned.
When is Star Wars Battlefront: Death Star out, and what's the price?
EA and the development team at DICE remain cagey on revealing an absolute date for the Death Star DLC for Star Wars Battlefront, though they would at least narrow it down: the expansion is confirmed for release in September 2016, while the next expansion on from that will launch around holiday 2016.
The Death Star expansion for the game comes part and parcel with the Star Wars Battlefront season pass. The season pass will set you back £39.99/$49.99 and is available now from Amazon US, Amazon UK, or your regional Origin PC, PlayStation or Xbox Live stores. The season pass will get you the Outer Rim and Bespin expansions right away, plus Death Star and the final expansion pack. You'll also get early access to the new releases.
A stand-alone price for the Death Star expansion hasn't been confirmed yet, but it's likely a safe assumption that it'll be similarly priced to Bespin, which launched for $15.
All about the Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: Scarif Expansion
By far the biggest announcement at the Star Wars Battlefront event that took place at Star Wars Celebration Europe was the confirmation that Battlefront's next major expansion after the Death Star would be based on the major upcoming movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is due to hit cinemas this Christmas.
Rogue One is the first major Star Wars movie to take place outside of the world of the main plot and its key characters, instead telling the story of a band of rebels whose actions prove vital to events fans have already seen in the original Star Wars movies. It's described as a 'war film', and so it seems a natural fit for Battlefront.
Little is currently known about the Rogue One: Scarif Expansion, as revealing anything about it is likely to run the risk of movie spoilers, but the expansion is very much likely to include new heroes, weapons, vehicles and maps - and possibly an entirely new battle scenario. The Rogue One movie is out December 16, so it'd be fair to expect the expansion to arrive around then. It's confirmed that despite being tied to a yet-to-be-released film, season pass holders will still get their hands on the expansion two weeks early.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 - When is a full Battlefront sequel coming?
At E3 2016 EA showed off a slick behind-the-scenes video that takes a look at the various studios working on Star Wars games including DICE, Motive Studios and Criterion, who are continuing to work on expansion content for Battlefront and Battlefront 2. There's no footage of the games, but it is a cool little teaser.
While it hasn't been officially announced in the typical sense with a press release, a trailer or something like that, the teams at EA and DICE know that trying to keep such a large-scale development entirely secret is near enough impossible and pointless - so they've openly acknowledged that Star Wars Battlefront 2 is in the works.
In an EA earnings call back in March EA Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said that the planned Star Wars Battlefront 2 would have "bigger and better worlds" and feature content from the latest movies in the franchise. While we're getting Rogue One content for the original game this is still a big deal as the original title largely focused on the original trilogy.
One interesting piece of information is the confirmation that Motive Studios is working on Star Wars Battlefront 2. Motive is the Canadian Studio set up by Jade Raymond of Assassin's Creed fame, and had its stated mission as making action-adventure games. They're currently assisting on two Stars Wars titles: Visceral's action-adventure game, and Battlefront 2. If DICE were too busy to add a campaign or story mode to Battlefront, Motive might be the ideal studio to bring that to life in a sequel - though that's just speculation on our part. We'll update with the latest news as it arrives, at any rate.