EA almost didn't put DICE on new Star Wars Battlefront game, says EA exec

Electronic Arts announced DICE as the developer of a new Star Wars Battlefront game, but the publisher was planning to put a different studio on it until DICE "begged to do it," said EA's Patrick Söderlund in an interview with CVG.

According to Söderlund, the executive vice president of the EA Games label, EA wasn't going to give Battlefront to DICE because the studio was otherwise occupied and didn't have the resources available to develop it. But once EA told DICE officials that it was negotiating with Disney for the rights to make Star Wars games, said Söderlund, "They just looked at me and said, 'Why haven't you spoken to us? What are you doing? We want to make Battlefront.'"

Söderlund also said EA assumed DICE wouldn't have wanted to work on a licensed title, since the games they've made have "always been new IP or their own IP.

"But they were just like, 'We would kill to make this game,' and the whole studio started talking about it like, 'Please give us this game.'" At that point, Söderlund called EA Labels president Frank Gibeau and told him that EA had to figure out a way to put DICE on Battlefront.

"[DICE] begged to do it, the opportunity was there and that's exactly why you'll see a game that will be what it needs to be," said Söderlund.

EA announced DICE's new Battlefront title with a brief teaser trailer (screencap above) during its E3 press briefing. The publisher did not provide any platforms or release window for the game.