Star Wars Battlefront producer defends game to skeptics, reveals more maps

A Star Wars Battlefront producer took to Reddit to defend EA DICE's upcoming game and counter allegations they'll hold content they're currently developing to be issued later as downloadable content.

DICE detailed the game last week at Star Wars Celebration. That included the news that those who pre-order Star Wars Battlefront will receive the free "Battle of Jakku" downloadable content a week before it's offered to everyone else.

Gamers on Reddit are skeptical. The thread began yesterday with a compliment to the Battlefront developer and suspicion of its publisher.

"I have confidence in DICE to make a great game," Redditor ThatHeathGuy wrote. "However I also have confidence that EA will hold most of that back and sell it to you in pieces."

ThatHeathGuy also postulated that the absence of space battles — which had been in the game's predecessor — "is for it to be a DLC further down the line, because EA."

The producer responded with a denial.

"No," DICE_TheBikingViking wrote. "Please don't make me break what I can and cannot say, but if you think there's anything we're not including in the game to save it for DLC, I can tell you you're 100 percent wrong. In this project, I've never heard anyone say 'Let's not do this for launch so we can do it as DLC instead'. Ever."

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A DICE developer, DarkLord7854, responded to the producer, writing, "Correction, we've never done that for any title :)"

Some Redditors were not convinced. One wrote asking for clarification, asking if DICE ever takes "non-functional/dream items on the reqs backlog and wrap them into DLC down the road."

"It depends really," DICE_TheBikingViking wrote. "DLC are planned out separately from the main game, however they're generally given some additional time to add in additional fixes/features not planned for at the time of conception.

"From what I've seen, the only time a feature has been moved to a DLC was when there was simply no time or resources to make it happen and it came down to either its cut completely and never being made, or it gets pushed to a future patch or DLC."

In a separate thread, Redditor Amiculi took umbrage with what was shown, writing that it doesn't yet constitute a Battlefront game.

"The loss of space battles, the linear on-rails AT-AT and the reduced number of maps and locations are perfectly forgivable as long as the core tenets of the series are intact," Amiculi wrote. "As of now, they are not. Even the lack of classes could be forgiven assuming there's enough customization to recreate those classes and their roles but there isn't enough information publicly available currently to account for that."

DICE_TheBikingViking again defended the game, confirming that there are more maps to be unveiled.

"Also, please stop with the reduced number of maps. We have more than 8 maps," he wrote. "How many have not been announced yet, but it's more than 8."

Back in the original thread, the producer didn't confirm or deny DICE's plans for downloadable content. He just made the case that things aren't being held back.

"I didn't say there would or wouldn't be DLC," he wrote. "I'm just saying that we are not saying 'hey, let's not do X and Y, even though we have the time/money/etc., so we can instead put it in DLC and make more money.'"

Skeptics still remain, like Redditor bf4ness who criticized DICE and EA for the troubled Battlefield 4 launch, characterizing its late 2013 release as a "disaster." If DICE "really cared for the gamers you wouldn't have released a title in that state," bf4ness wrote.

The producer seems to understand the distrust, as a response indicates.

"No, I'm not telling you to trust us! That's entirely up to you.

"I can repeat: I only have my words right now, and I don't expect anyone to just trust what I say."

Star Wars Battlefront is scheduled for a Nov. 17 release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.