When Star Wars Battlefront launched at the end of 2015, one of the biggest criticisms it faced was the absence of a single-player campaign. Now, we know why – it’s all The Force Awakens’ fault.
Speaking during Battlefront publisher Electronic Arts’ latest earnings call, Patrick Söderlund, executive vice president of EA Studios, touched on the reasons why the game was multiplayer-only. “The one thing that we got criticized for was the lack of a single-player campaign”, he said. “It was a conscious decision we made due to time and being able to launch the game side-by-side with the movie that came out to get the strongest possible impact. I think the team created a really good game based on the premise that we had.”
Battlefront itself was almost entirely focused on the classic Star Wars trilogy, taking players to iconic locations such as Hoth and Endor. Aside from pre-release DLC expanding the Battle of Jakku – the fallout of which was seen in the JJ Abrams-directed film, with new hero Rey exploring a downed Star Destroyer – the game didn’t crossover with the movie. The decision to abandon a solo campaign appears to have been purely a result of needing to get a Star Wars game out on shelves to coincide with the cinematic resurgence of the franchise.
Reception to the game has been mostly positive, although it currently holds a Metacritic rating of only 72-75, depending on platform. Star Wars Battlefront was released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. “I would say the game has done very well for us and reached a very different demographic than a traditional EA game,” Söderlund said. “From that perspective, it’s a success. Are we happy with the 75 rating? No. Is that something we’re going to cure going forward? Absolutely.”
Going forward should mean the already-announced Battlefront sequel will get the story mode that the current game missed out on. “We got criticised for the depth and breadth of [Battlefront],” Söderlund added. “So as we look at why that was, we have to go back and course-correct that for another version.”
