EA has controversially announced that their upcoming blockbuster Star Wars Battlefront is to be a Free-to-Play title.

Talking exclusively to Caketaku, EA CEO Andrew Wilson has said that the decision was made in order to allow the experience of Battlefront to have a ‘universal reach’ and allow the franchise to grow better with updates after release.

“The vision that we had when we took on the project was to create a game that not just Star Wars fans can enjoy, but also fans of the action arena genre.” said Wilson.

“This isn’t just a Battlefield clone. The experience is unique and refreshing, and we can reveal that the game can now be played by anyone with a compatible platform. We love the Star Wars franchise and we would be doing it a disservice if we were to limit who can play and how they can play it.”

With the free-to-play model being confirmed, Wilson also confirmed some details on how the F2P elements will work.

They game itself will be accessible to all using EA’s Origin service on PC, and on the PS4 and Xbox One’s store. Jedi powers, should as Force Push, Force Choke and even Pyromancy, will act as perks that your character can be attached with at the beginning of a match. Each Jedi power (16 in total) can be unlocked through progression, but they can also be bought using real money should you want a head start. Cosmetics and later expansions will also be obtainable with real money, as well as weapons and upgrades. New maps however will be free.

Subscribers of EA’s Access Service will also get a starter pack with bonus extras on top of early access to the game as previously revealed.

While EA also confirmed that currently there are no Space Battle or Galactic Conquest, these have not been ruled out completely, and Wilson gave us hope that we may still see them in the future.

“We know that the fans loved these features from the original games. We are not naive as to remove these modes without careful consideration. However, due to time constraints we can’t confirm there being there during active development to avoid forcing a further delay. We have kept fans on the edge for almost three years now. We want to give them what they want as soon as we can. This doesn’t mean it’s not something we’ll look at in the future.

Whether these will be DLC or free updates Wilson wouldn’t say.

There is currently a plan for a closed BETA in July, and an open BETA in August. We hope to have more information come E3.

__________________________________________________________

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed the content, be sure to share it with friends, family, gaming buddies, work colleagues, carrier pigeons, everyone!

For more updates and to get the latest articles as and when, subscribe to the page and follow us on Facebook @https://www.facebook.com/caketaku.

-Sam (@Spudehh)