For most of the 2010s, EA used its exclusivity over Star Wars games to faff about, making two multiplayer outings that would be influential for all the wrong reasons. It was only with Fallen Order's immense success in 2019 that single-player Star Wars games saw a triumphant return, leading to a great sequel in Jedi: Survivor.
But Fortnite's recent crossover with the galaxy far, far away has got me thinking again about the potential of a multiplayer return for Star Wars — whether that's Battlefront 3 or something new. Squadrons may have made a slight splash, but it certainly came and went. It's time for Star Wars to return to letting us play as our favorite characters down on the ground.
What really makes the idea of a new Star Wars multiplayer game so appealing now is the fact that EA’s exclusivity over games for the franchise that began in 2013 ended with the formation of Lucasfilm Games in 2021. EA may be a big company, but it’s not exactly like they can be expected to churn out a Star Wars game every year, nor should they. The two Battlefronts took up slots, actively denying singleplayer games from sprouting up, with EA choking out projects like Visceral’s planned single-player piece ‘Project Ragtag’ to focus on multiplayer games.
But now that EA's dictatorship over Star Wars is over, everyone's getting in on the action. Ubisoft is working on an open-world title (because of course they are) and Quantic Dream announced the action-adventure Star Wars Eclipse back in 2021. This explosion of studios working on games for the series makes a pretty good case for someone to come in and make a big multiplayer piece.
Obviously, Battlefront 2 was far from a perfect Star Wars multiplayer game. The system of upgrades and star cards is a tad convoluted, there’s a hive of bugs in the works, and I’m not too big of a fan of how Force-users handle. There’s more than a few ways for some polish to be added, as shown in the Star Wars games made after its release.
Fallen Order and Survivor, for instance, have an incredibly solid combat system that a multiplayer iteration could learn from. The strikes and blocks in those games create the best experience I’ve ever had with a lightsaber in a Star Wars game. Mapping Force powers to cooldown abilities (as Battlefront 2 already does), while overhauling the lightsaber combat with the basics of the two Jedi games would go a long way to making Force users feel better to play.
For all its flaws, Battlefront 2 offers experiences that other Star Wars games can't. It offers the chance to play iconic characters (including General Grievous, my favorite character; getting to play him more would justify a new game itself if you ask me) whilst balancing them with average grunts, doing this by making 'heroes' and vehicles playable options only if you have enough 'battle points' from playing as said grunts.
For instance, I remember playing on the Separatists' team and eventually racking up a couple of kills as a battle droid. I saved enough battle points to respawn in an AAT (the Star Wars equivalent of a tank) and started kicking up the sandy dunes of Geonosis with cannon blasts, running the enemy clones out of the objective. Later on I had enough points to respawn as a Commando Droid—with characters like Darth Maul up for grabs if I had waited even longer. Not only is this a great way to balance weak and strong characters, but it even adds a layer of risk-reward mechanics associated with spending your points upon respawning. Also, it's just good ridiculous fun.
Despite the issues with the actual play, these are some strong concepts that are worth carrying over into a new experience that irons out the kinks.
However, it’s time to channel my inner fun-police and address the key caveat to all this: whether a multiplayer Star Wars game can be pulled off without becoming the disaster it was last time out with Battlefront 2. Its tag team of pay-to-win microtransactions and lootboxes changed the gaming landscape. It delivered a PR fiasco of momentous proportions to EA's doorstep, (earning the most downvoted comment on Reddit of all time) leading to worldwide reassessments of monetization in gaming going forward.
But these issues still come up in the modern gaming landscape. EA's own Apex Legends has maintained the lootbox scourge, and the new live-service model of battle passes and rotating storefronts (which includes the aforementioned Apex) is already one that many are tired of.
Luckily, with EA's exclusivity over Star Wars being done and dusted, there's a good likelihood that we could see an online game that doesn't try to bleed every last penny out of the player given the new competition opened up by the end of EA’s monopoly over the series. There could still always be another disaster given how centralized the AAA market is in general, but after a sustained absence I like our chances of getting something solid.
Besides, I've made begrudging peace with the fact we'll never get General Grievous: The Videogame, so I'll just have to settle for another Star Wars multiplayer title.