An Update on Star Wars Battlefront 3 Fan Remake and Some New Images
"Galaxy in Turmoil" continues.
The fan remake of Star Wars Battlefront III, the controversial, ill-fated Star Wars shooter that was in development at Free Radical before being canceled, continues to move forward. The team of Star Wars fans behind the unlicensed game, Frontwire Studios, today hosted a new livestream where they talked more about their attempts to revive and remake the game as part of a PC project called "Galaxy in Turmoil."
During the stream, the developers shared new work-in-progress images and cleared up a few points of potential confusion. First, they stressed that Galaxy in Turmoil will be a free game when it is eventually released. This is because the team feels like fans deserved to get Star Wars Battlefront III years ago before it was canceled. Additionally, from a business perspective, this may keep it off Disney legal team's radar, for now at least.
The game is of course inspired by Battlefront III, but its assets were built from the ground up, the developers said. However, they also explained they plan to use John Williams' score, which could lead to some legal issues, we'd imagine.
During the stream, the developers said if Disney sends them a cease and desist order, they will shut down the project right away. They said they would be "shocked" if Disney was not aware of the project. Additionally, they said they would contact Disney in the future to talk about how they can go about ensuring the project does not get shut down.
It was also announced during the event that Frontwire, as of Friday morning, is now an official, registered company.
Check out the bullet point list below for some other takeaways from the stream, while you can click through the images in the gallery above to see some shots that were revealed today.
- Game runs on Unreal Engine 4
- Undecided about split-screen.
- Don't expect it on Steam, since it's an unlicensed game.
- Game is in pre-alpha currently; all plans are subject to change.
- All classic Battlefront game modes will be available, while Frontwire is creating a new mode designed around competitive play.
- Matches will be 32v32 players; AI will fill in for players who drop out mid-match.
- Will include original Battlefront III maps and some new ones.
- Support for Battlefield II maps it to be determined; could be added as DLC.
- Development won't end at 1.0 release; more content will be added later.
- Will include multiplayer because "it's not Battlefront without multiplayer."
- Mod support could come after launch.
- Developers are looking at all eras of Star Wars; fans can add their own content with mods.
- No Star Cards like DICE's new Battlefront.
- There will be pickups for things like health packs and ammo drops.
- No health generation.
- Aims to be faithful to the original Battlefront games.
- Some maps have a day/night cycle.
- Frontwire hopes to make a new IP after releasing Galaxy in Turmoil.
- A video will be released on May 4, Stars War Day, to hype the Battlefront III remake.
The remake's developers include TheDarkSithLord, ColeT2014, CoolJedy, Corra_Ashu, and Dinozavr. Frontwire is also inviting people with development experience to help out.
Despite numerous and detailed evidence about its existence and development, LucasArts never actually confirmed that Battlefront III was in fact in production. The game has long been the subject of much rumor, speculation, and head-butting.
In January this year, gameplay footage stemming from what appeared to be a leaked prototype version of Battlefront III emerged online.
"After a lot of work I managed to get my hands on Star Wars Battlefront III and wanted to share the infamous canceled game that I'm sure many of you wanted to play," the person who leaked the footage said at the time. "I know not everyone will get the chance to play this immediately, but over time I expect the modding community to be able to change that."
That's now exactly what's happening.
EA launched a new Star Wars Battlefront game in November for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC--it was a big, big hit. Multiple sequels are apparently also on the way.
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