Star Wars Battlefront 3, what happened?

It’s a well known fact that Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been in development hell. Every developer that has picked it up has been closed. Is it therefore a game still in limbo or is there a possibility that it could be coming out in the near future?

Since as early as November 2006, it was reported that Star Wars Battlefront 3 was in development. Free Radical was the original developer and was developing for some time. Leaked gameplay footage and concept art showcased many of the games features and that the game was well on the way.

The Rebel Soldier always look like a badass.

However on the 18th December 2008, Free Radical closed its doors. Pandemic studiostook over the project but went defunct not long after. Since then, the prospect of Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been but speculation, with many fans clutching at straws with only snippets of information.

A new hope (excuse the pun) was found. The California based developer Spark Unlimited, known for games such as Legendary and Call of Duty: Finest Hour, announced a project for a “well-established third-person science fiction action game expected sometime in 2012″. Sound familiar? This, along with rumoured meetings with LucasArts and Tweets referencing Star Wars, caused fans to join the dots.

Spark Unlimited found a lot of publicity and recognition from fans of the franchise wanting to know information. The developers however, kept everything tightly under-wraps. On April 1st of this year, models and textures buried in Resident Evil: OperationRaccoon City‘s archives were also found.

One of the pictures found on the disk.

Today however, fans hopes and dreams crumbled. Spark Unlimited announced their project and it wasn’t Star Wars Battlefront 3. Lost Planet 3 has been announced as the game they are working on. This came out of nowhere as Twitter exploded with Tweets to the developers, wanting to know why they had been led on. Spark simply replied,  ”I appreciate everyone’s exuberance for BF3. But I was under strict NDA. All I could do is say contact @lucasartsgames.”

I myself was very upset when I heard the news, I wanted Battlefront 3 more than any other game. Hope still remains however, LucasArts for instance have a booth at E3 and have no scheduled games to announce, perhaps we will be getting a surprise announcement? Only Time will tell. Whatever happens, Spark Unlimited got one hell of a boost from this! You can’t blame them to be honest.

So what do you think? Do you think Battlefront 3 is still a possibility or do you think fans should just accept the fact that it will not be happening? Be sure to share your views in the comments below!