Battlefront Rushed for The Force Awakens

The latest Star Wars: Battlefield game, developed by EA and Infinity Road, has had a bit of a bumpy road. It was announced with a massive amount of hype, which faded as more of the game was revealed to the world and details leaked about the title. But just when the cynicism started to kick in... BAM. The demo hit the gaming world like a truck, and suddenly people were really excited for the reboot. An excitement that lasted a couple few weeks until we learned even more about the game and we realized there wasn't really that much that the Demo didn't show us already.

Game launched, and while it was a commercial and financial success, it was met with a resounding "meh" from fans and critics, who then moved on. One of the biggest sticking points in the critique of the game was that it lacked a proper single-player mode, something Battlefield games had enjoyed up until that point, and people were confused as to why it had been removed this time around.

"Confused" might be a strong word, actually. Because EA has recently confirmed that, yes, the game was rushed to launch, thus depriving it of some content. And you'll never guess WHY it was rushed:

"We made [the choice] due to time and being able to launch the game side-by-side with the movie that came out to get the strongest possible impact."

No kidding. While not an explicit movie tie-in (in fact, Disney won't let them use Force Awakens content in the game), releasing a big-budget Star Wars game with the sequel to the trilogy that set the world's imagination aflame is certainly a marketer's dream, even if it resulted in a weaker game. And boy, don't they know it:

"I think the team created a really good game based on the premise that we had. I would say the game has done very well for us and reached a very different demographic than a traditional EA game. So from that perspective, it's a success. Are we happy with the 75 [Metacritic] rating? No. Is that something we're going to cure going forward? Absolutely."

So, when they release Star Wars Battlefront 2, maybe that means they'll include a proper single-player mode? Proper co-op? Fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath. This is still EA, after all, and they'll find some new, exciting way to screw this up.

But you can never accuse them of lacking innovation, in that regard.