Star Wars: First Assault could be a precursor to Battlefront 3, source says

Star Wars: First Assault, an unreleased game whose Xbox Live Arcade artwork was discovered on Xbox.com last October, is a 16-person first-person shooter and a precursor to Star Wars: Battlefront 3, a source tells Kotaku.

According to the source, the downloadable game's success would be "step zero" in developing a future installment in the Battlefront franchise, which put players in the middle of massive battles in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars: First Assault was originally slated for release this spring, the source said, but delayed because of Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise. According to Kotaku's source, the new game would start Battlefront from scratch, using the engine developed for Star Wars: First Assault.

In May 2012, Free Radical Design co-founder David Doak said that Star Wars: Battlefront 3 had been in development from mid-2006 to early 2008 but was canceled by LucasArts executives who found the project too costly. In June, an hour-long clip said to be an alpha build of the game was released online.

We've reached out to LucasArts for comment and will update this article with more information as it becomes available. You can read Kotaku's full report, which includes purported screenshots from the unreleased FPS, here.