One of the complaints from 2015’s Star Wars Battlefront was that the DLC season pass split players up, making it difficult to find full games for the new maps and game modes shortly after an expansion’s release. Thought criticised, Battlefront II is addressing that by removing a DLC season pass and funding later DLC and content drops with microtransactions.
What’s interesting is that the plans for content have a lot in common with other games which have seasons and weekly events, from Destiny to Overwatch and even the likes of Splatoon. EA and DICE have now outlined the plans for the first month of Season One, which is set to be inspired by The Last Jedi.
There will be added content at this time, with the release of Phasma and Finn as hero characters coming with Season One on 13th December alongside the Galactic Assault map of Crait and the Starfighter Assault map set in D’qar, but before that, Season One will kick off by asking you to choose between the Light and Dark sides of the Force, with the two sides then competing for supremacy across the game’s modes. Later weeks will be themed around things like particular space battles, and the final week of December will be shaped by fan feedback for the Holiday Playlist, emphasising that EA and DICE are dedicated to making sure
However, the most surprising thing about this is that there will also be additional single player content. That’s right, Iden Versio’s story will continue on 13th December, as you get her view on how The First Order was founded in the years prior to The Force Awakens.
Check out the first month as detailed by EA in this image – click to view at full size:
Speaking to John Stanley from Criterion and Dennis Brännvall from DICE – catch our full interview with the pair here – they outlined the overall vision for how seasons and post-release content will roll out:
John: I think to start, we’re kicking it off [in December] and it’s about Light vs. Dark, and that’s such an iconic thing within Star Wars itself. Bringing that into the fold and really seeing where you get that alliance and get those water cooler moments and bragging rights where it’s like, “I’m with the Imperials.”
So that kicks it all off, but then it’s about always making sure there’s something for players to do each week, so there’s always going to be something for them to return to in the game, something for them to come back to and new for them to dive into each week.
Dennis: It’s going to be interesting, not just educating ourselves but our community too in what it means to be in this version of Battlefront. It’s not paid DLC, it’s not about X amount of maps, X amount of heroes and these quarterly drops. Instead it’s sometimes going to be about a totally new thing that you asked for, this left field thing that when you play it you realise that should be the core of the game because it’s awesome!
It’s fun for us too, because we don’t have to worry about the same tried and true formula, the back of the box “DLC 1 contains this”. It’s more about saying, “I’ve always wanted us to be doing this, can we just try that?” And then we do it and if it’s awesome we release it, and then if they like it, it stays, and if they don’t like it, it goes!
TSA: So, there could be the kind of playfulness that you see in Overwatch’s Arcade? Where you can just try out a game mode and it’s there for two weeks?
Dennis: Yeah. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. Either way it’s cool!
TSA: And you said that Season One is going to start with Light vs. Dark? Does that mean we’re going to end up with things like Splatoon 2’s Ketchup vs. Mayo? [laughs]
John: [laughs] I was more alluding to the fact that when you get into Season One, the first thing you’ll do is pick a side. You can read into that what you want.
TSA: I’d love to have a fight between Space Ketchup vs. Space Mayo!
John: Yeah, it could be like Bantha Milk versus… I dunno!
Post your suggestions for iconic Star Wars battles in the comments below, and you never know, we could have BB8 vs. R2-D2 in a future season!
Source: Battlefront
ron_mcphatty
This sounds really interesting, a much more welcome approach than a season pass. It should all work well, as long as the loot crates aren’t too much of a pain in the arse.
I’d personally like to see R2D3 and C3PO face off against Chewie after aggregating him with that plasticine monster chess game. Slaps only.