DICE almost didn’t make Battlefront

It’s a big year for Star Wars. It’s absolutely everywhere. Toy aisles, book stores, even the conveyer belts at Target are featuring the iconic scrolling text. There’s no escaping, not that you’d want to. Not only is the franchise returning to theaters but the classic Battlefront is also returning to consoles in just a few months.

With an open beta getting ready to launch across platforms on October 8th, developer DICE is opening up about the fact they almost turned down this project. Studio general manager Patrick Bach explains how Battlefront nearly slipped through the studio’s fingers, “Disney came to EA looking for a partner to make games and suggested, 'Maybe DICE should make a Battlefront game'. On our side, we had this opportunity but were fully booked with other work and thought, ‘Argh, we can’t do that!’ But then the heart kicks in, says ‘we will figure it out,’ and we figured it out. Because you can’t say no to a project like that."

However, saying you’ll make it work and executing that task are two different concepts, but Bach says they pulled it off. "You piece it together based on competence, passion, availability – although that’s easier to fix," adds Bach. "You need the right people in the right place to do the right ‘thing’. Even though you don’t know what that is yet, you still have an idea of the concept. From that you say, “okay, we need this person or that person.” Then, of course, you have to hire a lot of people; you swap people around. Some people just won’t be interested; other people have been building Battlefield games for ten years and want to try something else. And other people say, ‘I would love to work on Star Wars, but… I don’t work for [DICE].’ So it’s a mix of everything, a very organic process."

Star Wars Battlefront launches on November 17, 2015.