Star Wars: Battlefront is still on-track for 17 November North American release on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC (November 20 in UK). DICE is hard at work, and it's even some industry insiders have predicted its success.
"It's been going pretty well, I would say," EA Digital Illusions CE (DICE) senior producer Sigurlina Ingvarsdóttir said in an interview.
"This is DICE's second game out on the next gen consoles and out on PS4. We learned a lot on the previous title, BF4, and now we're at the place that we feel like we're getting more familiar with the hardware. We're getting better results; we're having a good collaboration with the engineers at Sony. I'd say we're really being able to, as I think our gameplay video shows... We're really able to get the maximum out of the hardware, and really able to sort of harness that power," he added.
A new feature being introduced in the game is the 40-player limit, which some fans have expressed concerns about.
"We didn't want to use an arbitrary number that would lessen the experience. We have a range of modes that affect the experience, all the way down to eight players for a more intimate experience." DICE producer Craig Mcleod said in a separate interview.
"The 40-player max is not a result of Battlefield telemetry. It was an internal decision to aim for this for various reasons. And of course the map design will reflect whatever max player limit you have; otherwise it would just be very bad map design. Battlefront is not Battlefield. That's never been the intention; our intention with Battlefront is to build a game that feels and is very different from Battlefield," he added.
Fortune posted a report on the game's commercial outlook, and the signs seem rosy for Disney and EA. According to the report, by virtue of being a "Star Wars" property and the fact that there has been no releases since 2013, "Star Wars: Battle front" could generate as much as $600 million in revenue. (Watch the trailer of the game below.)
"It's 'Star Wars,' and the brand has a much broader level of recognition than the other games, period. Grandma will buy 'Star Wars' over the other two as a holiday gift because she doesn't know what 'Halo' is," said industry analyst Michael Pachter in a Fortune report.
Peter Warman, CEO of video game research firm Newzoo, expressed in the same report his belief it will be successful because games with the largest development and marketing budgets, are always welcomed by gamers. He added that DICE is known for making top quality games, and that EA will profit from downloadable content.
Speaking of DLCs, we previously mentioned that DICE assistant producer Jesper Nielsen addressed concerns raised about it some time ago.
"I cannot stress this enough; there will be more than 8 maps! Also, the amount of content in the game has absolutely zero to do with DLC. I can say that with all honesty," he said. The way it's turning out, looks like Star Wars: Battlefront is really worth the wait. Stay tuned for more updates!
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