Fan-made Battlefront 3 revival Galaxy in Turmoil drops Star Wars connection
Frontwire Studios announced Sunday that they eliminated association with the Star Wars brand for their Battlefront 3 recreation, Galaxy in Turmoil. This decision came after LucasFilm and EA asked the studio to cease production on the title.
“On Wednesday June 22, 2016, we received a letter from Lucasfilm requesting that we halt production of Galaxy in Turmoil with any Star Wars related IP at once,” wrote Frontwire Studios president Tony Romanelli via a letter. “Rather than laying down at the first sign of trouble, I requested a meeting with the Lucasfilm executives to discuss our project and to find some common ground to work with. Honestly, I didn’t expect too much negotiation to occur. But much to my surprise, executives at the top of Lucasfilm agreed to meet. A week later, that meeting took place.”
LucasFilm seemed receptive to the idea of a fan-made Star Wars game during the meeting. However, according to Romanelli, the company’s licensing agreement for Star Wars video games with EA makes such a thing difficult. Galaxy in Turmoil posing direct competition with EA’s Battlefront brand further compounded the issue.
“Their main concern was due to the possibility of Galaxy in Turmoil taking away attention from their Battlefront franchise,” wrote Romanelli. “Due to their exclusive contract with EA, Lucasfilm was contractually obligated to deny our request for the use of the Star Wars IP for Galaxy in Turmoil based on EA’s decision.”
Despite this outcome, the Galaxy in Turmoil project isn’t dead. Instead, Fontwire Studios will be focusing on a completely new space IP “inspired” by Battlefront.
Concept art from the non-Star Wars version of Galaxy in Turmoil.
“Going forward, Frontwire Studios will be pivoting away from Star Wars and embarking on a mission to create a new, original game in a never before seen universe,” wrote Romanelli. “Our game will still have massive 64-player battles, ground-to-space combat, destructible capital ships, and a full single-player campaign.”
A Steam release is still on the cards for Galaxy in Turmoil. Frontwire Studios also plans to keep the game free-to-play without micro-transactions or other pay-to-win features. However, the studio hopes to crowd-fund the project once they release a fully-playable demo.
While this wasn’t the most shocking news—especially because Galaxy in Turmoil was intended to be a Battlefront game—where Frontwire Studios takes their new IP will be interesting to see.
