"If they were to add the Clone Wars, it would almost double the work they would have to do and it would have a negative effect on the game."
Regarding this business that DICE are concentrating only on the Galactic Civil War for the new Star Wars Battlefront, this is one of the most commented quotes I have seen. And I cannot possibly imagine why anyone would even say that.
Development for the original Battlefront started in 2002. There's no exact date, but the fact is roughly two years later, on September 2004, the game itself released. We had both Clone Wars and Galactic Civil War. We had numerous maps, and we had numerous vehicles, both land and air, to use in some of them. The game itself ran smooth as anything. The AI were lacking in substance admittedly, but that alone was the only thing wrong with the original Battlefront.
One year later, Battlefront 2 arrived, with slight control fixes, but a massive amount of content and AI fixes. While Battlefront 1 was content with just Conquest, with Battlefront 2 came Capture the Flag, Hunt, Space Assault, and Heroes vs Villains. We had an upgraded Galactic Conquest mode, a proper campaign, and numerous new maps.
Yes, an entire generation of consoles has come and gone between then and now, with a much improved quality in game engines. And some people might even use that as to why DICE are only concentrating on the Galactic Civil War. But unless they have something different, something within the GCW era that'll amaze, the Clone Wars still needs to make itself known.
And if that is indeed the case, here's a plan.
The focus is upon the Galactic Civil War. There are three movies to focus on. The maps they can use include - Tantive IV, Tatooine, Death Star, Yavin IV, Hoth, Bespin, Endor, Dagobah, and possibly use some of the space battles as well. Have a space battle within the asteroid field of the Anoat sector. Create a battle of Endor above space that simplifies matters a bit. But then, and here's the radical part - use Rebels, the TV Series, to add more onto it. Not much is known about Rebels, but DICE have insider access, and the first season will be out and finished by the time Battlefront DICE comes around.
Next game comes around. Two, maybe three more seasons of Rebels will have come around. Episode VII will have been released with Episode VIII on the way or just released. Maybe one of the spin off films will also have been released. Touch upon them, but not massively. The focus this time should be on Episodes I, II, and III, as well as The Clone Wars TV series. Now, now. Not everything from The Clone Wars needs to be featured. We don't really want material from The Clone Wars out-massing all the other material from Star Wars included within it. As much content as the first game managed to get out of Rebels should be an ideal waypoint for the material from The Clone Wars, maybe a bit more.
Third game comes out, and unless the EA contract for Star Wars games gets renewed, this will be the last. The sequel trilogy will now be fully out. Maybe a number of spin off films will also have been released. For the third game, this new content should be the focus. All previous content will still be around, maybe swapped around a bit to keep things fresh. But this fresh wave of content from the sequel trilogy will bolster what Battlefront already had and make it massive and bulging.
Now, as far as I'm aware, DICE have a history of expansions with Battlefield. Having hardly played the series, having not bought a single game [though I'm having fun in the free week of Battlefield 4 EA have given], I've only ever seen the expansions in brief, with no idea of what they hold.
But this seems a common thing for DICE to do. I wouldn't know. Either way, expansions - if handled poorly - could split the fan base on this game. The Clone Wars needs to be featured, even if, for the vanilla game, they are just programmed into the Instant Action mode as an era to choose on the maps. Maybe not all of them, but it would certainly keep the fans who want the Clone Wars to be in the game happy, and an expansion of the Clone Wars with a new campaign, new Galactic Conquest, new maps, and even new weapons and vehicles. The second expansion could then concentrate on The Clone Wars, giving us those characters, weapons, maps, and vehicles only seen in the TV series. The third expansion then gives us Rebels TV series content. Yes, it means paying up more, but from the plan I outlined above, that means two games in one [even if you are still paying for both].
Either way, I'm waiting on Spring 2015, which is where Battlefront news is now hanging. But when that news does get shown, I hope a lot of progress has been made so we can actually see some of the game modes in action.
