Earlier this week, Electronic Arts outlined the free and paid DLC coming to Star Wars Battlefront in the coming months. The plans run through the entirety of 2016 with the fourth and final Season Pass expansion — still without details — coming in "early 2017." One would hope, with Disney's first spinoff film — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — releasing in December of this year, that the fourth expansion pack could contain some content from the movie. It's possible, but EA isn't quite ready to commit just yet.
"On Star Wars, the one thing that we are adhering to, and I think this is part of our arrangement with Lucas and Disney, is you can't make a game in Star Wars that violates the canon of Star Wars. Meaning, you can take something from the future and bring it back into the past unless it's a reference," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen explained.
"Not knowing yet exactly what the storyline in Rogue One is going to be, I can't comment on how that could come in. But to the extent that it's in the future around our current Battlefront game is all paced based on the historical Star Wars canon, which is 30 years before the most recent movie," he continued. The 'most recent' referring to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi.
Despite releasing around the time of The Force Awakens, EA's Star Wars Battlefront is thematically designed with the original trilogy in mind, but does include some content that explores the Battle of Jakku, which takes place shortly after the Battle of Endor. Jordgensen added that the period in which Battlefront is set "limits" the studio's ability "to brings ome new content into that." In fact, it's the reason we won't see any Force Awakens DLC in this particular Battlefront.
That being said, EA did leave open the possibility of Rogue One DLC, if they can make it so it doesn't violate the canon.
"Obviously we're trying to stay tightly connected to the Star Wars beat for future movies, and we will obviously in future Star Wars games be able to tap the new characters and vehicles and so forth. But in our current game, and for that matter the DLC associated with that current game, obviously we will have to be careful that we don't violate the canon," Jorgensen said.
Though it would take some crafty thinking, it is possible for Rogue One to be added as DLC, depending on the exact setting of the film. We know the movie is set prior to the events of A New Hope, but we don't know how much before just yet. We also know it centers on a band of resistance fighters who unite to help steal the plans to the dreaded Death Star, so technically, it could still tie into the whole "original" trilogy canon Star Wars Battlefront has going.
The problem, in my opinion, lies with Battlefront's heroes. Although Darth Vader is rumored to make an apperance, we don't know about the other original characters, such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, or any of the other heroes in Battlefront. That would make playing as them on Rogue One-themed maps tricky, especially if EA is forced to adhere to canon. That being said, if EA can figure out a workaround, like not allowing particular heroes on a Rogue One map, then I don't see why it couldn't work.
If anything, it's possible we could see a focus on the new trilogy with the next Battlefront, because we all know there's going to be a sequel — especially given this game's sales.
