Electronic Arts buried a tantalizing detail inside the toughest announcement in its history. In the restructuring memo that closed BioWare and canceled the next Mass Effect, EA confirmed that two of its shooter studios are being brought together to collaborate on a future project — and that project is reportedly the sequel Star Wars fans have been demanding for nearly a decade.
Variety, citing "multiple sources," reports that the collaboration is Star Wars Battlefront 3. EA itself has not confirmed what the project is, and neither studio has commented — so for now, the sequel's existence rests entirely on the report.
What EA has put in writing is narrower. The memo says the company will take the learnings from Battlefield 6's launch and live service and "leverage the technology to deliver a shooter portfolio that unlocks growth," with the two studios' joint project helping it "achieve that ambition." EA says it "can't wait to share more when the time comes" — but shared nothing about what the game actually is.
The same section of the memo lays out the rest of EA's shooter plans. Apex Legends will be expanded over the next few years with new "gameplay modes" and "other new experiences," alongside future Battlefield titles — a portfolio the joint project would anchor if the report holds.
The timing is difficult to ignore. The report lands one day after word circulated that Lucasfilm Games had been hunting for a development partner for a new Battlefront, with two studios reportedly circling the project. If the report is right, that search is already over — and it ended with the genre's most obvious pairing.
One half of that pairing needs no introduction to Battlefront players. The Stockholm studio built both Star Wars Battlefront in 2015 and Star Wars Battlefront II in 2017, the latter surviving its loot box controversy to become one of the most popular Star Wars games ever made. Its partner studio, meanwhile, has become EA's other shooter powerhouse through Apex Legends and the Titanfall series.
Demand for a third game has only grown louder. Battlefront II enjoyed a sudden resurgence in players last year, nearly a decade after launch, with longtime players openly hoping the revival would ignite talks of a sequel. The franchise's combined sales and that sustained popularity have kept the pressure on Lucasfilm and EA ever since.
Star Wars gaming is also having a moment the report plays into. Star Wars Zero Company, co-developed by one of the two studios in question, and Star Wars: Galactic Racer have both landed as popular new entries this year, and EA's memo separately reaffirmed Marvel's Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi game. If Battlefront 3 is real, it would arrive in the middle of the franchise's strongest gaming run in years — but until EA says the words itself, it remains a report, not an announcement.
