Will Star Wars Battlefront’s companion app join the Dark Side?

I feel bad for Star Wars Battlefront. It’s a game that, for years, millions of people have been pining for. But now that it’s finally a reality, it’s been saddled with the apprehension and pessimism that certain members of the games industry have spent the past two years establishing. Battlefront was hibernating somewhere on Hoth during the time of Assassin’s Creed Unity crashes, Batman: Arkham Knight’s disrepair, Evolve’s DLC addiction, Destiny’s price-gouging and more, but it still feels the effects. The longstanding worry of it becoming “Battlefield: Star Wars Edition,” born of DICE’s reputation and a negative but justified view of modern shooters, only poured fuel on the fire.

Of course, this is a reality for all games looking to distance themselves from the industry’s unnervingly frequent screw-ups. No studio wants to carry some stigma around. But for Battlefront, expectations have been set particularly high, raised by rose-tinted memories of the wonderful Star Wars Battlefront 2. Anything that it does differently, even if it does so meaningfully and effectively, is often met with a knee-jerk reaction. The lack of an in-depth single player campaign was the first in a line of potential red flags, the latest addition to which is Battlefront’s mobile companion app.

Companion apps are a product of the calendar. They exist because ours is an interconnected age. Even my freaking fridge has Bluetooth. I’m pretty sure my coffee maker gets FM radio. Also, consoles want a spot in the digital river. Bringing games off media stands and into player pockets was a logical step, one also driven by the explosive popularity and incomparable install base of mobile gaming. Seeing Battlefront do the same is no surprise, especially given the mobile foothold of its publisher, EA. But companion apps have a rocky history, which Battlefront may also shoulder for some time.

Destiny’s companion is a good example; it lets you organize your Vault and check with in-game vendors in real time, without having to queue up any additional loading screens. Fallout 4 will take a similar approach with its app, which will double as something of a handheld Pip-Boy, menus and inventory and all. Battlefront’s tracker is great for the same reason: it creates a meaningful tether between the game you have at home and the device you keep with you all the time. It's also just plain to cool to affect your game using your phone, not unlike the dorky way the cheesy plastic guns on those cheap cinema arcade booths are dangerously fun. Most importantly, it doesn’t get in the way of anything, which is the inherent risk with things like Base Command.

The way I see it, there are three ways Base Command will play out. The worst-case scenario—which I’ll call the Evolve route in honor of the game’s blatantly pay-to-win match-three companion game—is that it proves to be another grab at a quick buck, buried by the same sort of ludicrous microtransactions which killed EA’s Dungeon Keeper reboot. Insert pay-to-win prophecy here. But because the optimism wrinkle on my cynical brain hasn’t totally vanished yet, I’m willing to bet this won’t be the case.

It’s the second route I’m actually worried about. We’ll call this one the Second Son or Black Flag route. See, Infamous: Second Son and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag have something in common: they unnecessarily gate minor but valid content. The former buries its Paper Trail event in its dedicated site (which isn’t technically a companion app, but the principle stands), while the latter has a medley of in-game goodies tied to maps accessed via its companion app. This isn’t due to malice or greed, but it’s still an inconvenience. It’s an inelegant, ham-handed attempt at promoting cross-platform interaction that just ends up hiding content. The reaction is innate: “Why can’t I just play the game? I don’t want to hold my phone.”

The worry is that Battlefront’s Base Command will be the only way to unlock certain content. DICE has yet to detail the game’s reward system, but has said it can be used to earn “in-game Credits that unlock Star Cards, weapons, and more.” If Credits are universal, there should be no problems. If not, nit-picking begins. It doesn’t sound like much to miss out on a weapon skin or two, but that’s the type of thing that’s infinitely more annoying when you actually see it. It will never be a big deal since you can always boot up the app and unlock the things if you really want to, but it still raises the question of “Why?” Why not put it in the actual game? Why do I have to get my phone out?

Naturally, this is all purely speculative, which leads us to route three. Maybe Base Command will actually be pretty fun? A Star Wars card game? Sure, I’ll bite. It’s free to play, after all, and it might be a nifty way to upgrade your loadout while you kill time away from home. An optional, practical companion app? If that’s all it is, that would be great. The tracker alone is worth downloading; all Base Command has to do is not screw up colossally.