Star Wars Battlefront 3 Rumors Name DICE, Bungie and Respawn, but Nobody Has Confirmed a Thing
By CriticalPixel ·
Star Wars Battlefront 3 is suddenly the most talked about shooter that does not exist. A revived column in Electronic Gaming Monthly says Lucasfilm is hunting for a studio to build it, a studio CEO claims a different pair of developers already have their hands on it, and nobody with a Disney, EA or Sony badge has said a single word on the record. IGN framed the whole mess as a rumor with real force behind it, which is fair, but a rumor is still a rumor. Here is what is on the table, who said it, and why you should keep your hype on a leash for now.
Where the Battlefront 3 rumor started
The origin is Electronic Gaming Monthly's revived Quartermann column in issue #265, which went out digitally to backers on October 9. Jeff Grubb read the snippet aloud on Giant Bomb's Game Mess Mornings on October 19, and that is when it spread. The column claims Disney has big plans for the Battlefront series and that Lucasfilm is looking for a development partner. Two studios are said to be circling: DICE, the Battlefield developer behind the 2015 reboot and Battlefront 2, and Bungie, the Halo and Destiny studio that is currently busy trying to fix Marathon. According to The Game Post, Bungie would potentially step in if DICE does not get the job, and neither studio has reportedly committed to anything. That last part matters, because circling is not signing.
Then came the twist. Joe Brammer, the boss of Wardogs developer Bulkhead, posted on X that DICE and, from what he has heard, Respawn are working on Battlefront 3, adding that he was not sure what that means for Battlefield. He followed up later saying he wants Battlefield and Battlefront in the same cycle and that it would be awesome. Notice the hedge in the original post: from what I've heard. That is secondhand information from a studio head who does not work at EA, Respawn or Lucasfilm, so treat it as a lead and not a confirmation. It also quietly disagrees with the EGM version, since the column as IGN described it only named DICE and Bungie.
What the rumor can and cannot tell us
IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole makes the most sensible point in the whole pile: if Lucasfilm is still looking for development partners, Battlefront 3 is not in full production yet. What is plausible is pre-production. DICE and Respawn could have spent time fleshing out what the game is and how it plays while Lucasfilm shops for extra hands to build it. That reading lets the EGM column and the Brammer post both be partly right without anyone lying. It also means any release window is pure fantasy at this point, so nobody should be circling a date on a calendar.
The Bungie angle is the weird one. Bungie is still working to turn around Marathon, and only last month it said more Destiny is coming, months after it ended support for Destiny 2. A fully fleshed out Battlefront 3 is a huge ask for a studio already stretched across that much, and IGN openly wonders whether the Sony-owned studio would even have the scope to do it any time soon. Would Sony be receptive to the idea? Would Bungie? Those are IGN's questions, and I do not have better answers. What I do know is that a studio fighting for the survival of its current shooter is a strange place to look for the next Star Wars blockbuster.
Battlefront has burned us before
Fans have been here before. Free Radical Design, the TimeSplitters developer, had a Battlefront 3 that was pretty much done before it fell by the wayside around 2008, and assets and even builds have leaked online ever since. EA then had DICE reboot the series with Star Wars Battlefront in 2015. The 2017 sequel launched into a disaster fueled by backlash over loot boxes, which should hang as a permanent warning label over any publisher who lets a monetization meeting outrank the gameplay. DICE spent years righting the ship, and Battlefront 2 is now held in pretty high regard. That redemption arc is the reason people want a third entry, and why they are nervous about who handles it.
There is a catch even in the happy version. If DICE is working on Battlefront 3, it is doing so without much of the original development team, who scattered across studios in Sweden and abroad after Battlefront 2 shipped. Some of them ended up at Embark, the studio behind The Finals and Arc Raiders, and a few fans are already pitching Embark as the ideal fit. I get the instinct, though nobody has linked Embark to the project in any report I opened. The people who rebuilt Battlefront 2 into a fan favorite are not necessarily the people sitting in the room now.
What Lucasfilm Games has actually said
Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly told The Game Business that huge triple-A games like Battlefront are always going to be an essential part of the strategy, while smaller games in other genres are also in the works. IGN notes that Star Wars games are in a positive moment, with Bit Reactor's strategy game Zero Company and Fuse Games' Galactic Racer both drawing good reactions. So the official line leaves the door open without confirming anything. Read that as encouragement, not an announcement, and certainly not a green light for a specific studio.
How players are taking it
Reaction in Brammer's replies is mixed and a little tired. Some players are thrilled, with one saying Battlefront 2 is so good they still play it with friends even though the servers are mostly bots now. Others jumped straight to the worst case, predicting bad skins, thin support and battle passes. One reply simply asked for anyone but Bungie or Disney, and another pushed back on the Battlefield worry, arguing a publisher can walk and chew gum at the same time. A French fan account called DICE plus Respawn very interesting. I only read a handful of replies, so call this a vocal sample and not a consensus.
The CriticalPixel take
Here is where I land. The strongest version of this story is that Lucasfilm wants Battlefront 3 and is shopping around for a partner, which is perfectly believable for a franchise with this much goodwill. The weakest version is a studio boss's secondhand hearsay getting promoted to development status, and it is easy for that to happen in people's heads when the headlines are stacked this thick. Two sources disagreeing on whether the partner is Bungie or Respawn tells you nobody outside the building has the full picture. Until Disney, EA or Lucasfilm says something on the record, this stays in the rumor bin.
My ask is simple. If Battlefront 3 happens, build the game first and the store second, and keep any loot box maze far away from the launch plan after what happened in 2017. Fans have waited long enough to demand the basics: a finished game on day one, fair progression, and a studio that actually wants to be there. Until an official word lands, enjoy the speculation, but do not preorder a rumor.
Sources
IGN, Star Wars Battlefront 3 rumors ramp up
The Game Post, Battlefront 3 may already be in development at DICE and Respawn, studio CEO claims