"Forever controversial and killed off before its time, Star Wars Battlefront 2 remains popular with gamers old and new and will likely do so until Battlefront III (or yet another franchise reboot) occurs sometime later in the 2020s."
It is commonly accepted that the PC community for any given multiplayer-focused first-person shooter will be the smallest by a huge margin; it’s one of those inconvenient truths that is just accepted.
Due to PC lobbies often having more cheaters, even popular AAA titles lose most of their player base within a few months of launch, while the console communities remain active for multiple years.
A perfect example is Call of Duty WWII ↪, which is almost entirely dead on PC, while the PlayStation monthly active user count still numbers in the millions.
However, Star Wars Battlefront 2’s fortunes have been far better due to its inclusion with EA Play, PC Game Pass, and, more importantly, the Epic Game Store giveaway, which saw close to 20 million new players claim Star Wars Battlefront 2 when it was offered for free in January 2021.
As of February 2023, the PC community is the largest by a huge margin and is likely to remain active for many years.
While most people play Star Wars Battlefront 2 to enjoy boots-on-the-ground action, there is also a small but still sizable community of players who take to the skies in Star Wars Battlefront 2’s excellent Starfighter mode, which is arguably one of the best ways to experience iconic Star Wars vehicles such as TIE Fighters and X-Wings.
Despite lacking cross-play, Star Wars Battlefront 2 remains active on all platforms, and players who are not too picky about which modes or maps they play will be able to find matches instantly via Quick Play most of the day in the EU/NA regions, and within two minutes in less active regions.
Due to the initial poor community response to Star Wars Battlefront 2, which saw Disney forced to intervene on behalf of the fanbase and franchise, plans for a sequel appear to have been set aside, despite Star Wars Battlefront 2 eventually regaining the trust of the Star Wars fan base and wider gaming community.
While it’s possible DICE may return to Star Wars Battlefront in the future, with Battlefield 2042 just starting to recover from its disastrous launch, any possible sequel is undoubtedly a few years out.
This is the second time that Star Wars Battlefront 3 has been delayed or cancelled, with the original run of Battlefront games also not receiving a third instalment, despite the project having been worked on for several years, with concept art surfacing from time to time.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is one of the last AAA shooters not to receive cross-play support, with cross-play not becoming widespread until around one year after its release.
Despite having no other means of supporting the title beyond the sale of cosmetic items, Star Wars Battlefront 2: Celebration Edition ($39.99) includes every skin released for the game. This move, while well received by the community, was unexpected, as by the time of its release Star Wars Battlefront 2 and its developers had already regained the trust of the community, and many would have been happy to support the developer by purchasing fairly priced cosmetic microtransactions.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 made history for all the wrong reasons when EA responded to a thread on Reddit asking why access to iconic characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker required players to either grind for dozens of hours or purchase premium currency and loot boxes.
EA responded that the system was made this way to “provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes” and to stress that “they appreciated the candid feedback and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums, and across numerous social media outlets.”
As you can imagine, this did not go down well with the community, and the comment received an astonishing 667,655 downvotes, a world record recorded by the Guinness Book of World Records.
In response to this (and Disney getting very angry that Star Wars was being portrayed in a horrible light), DICE removed the loot box system entirely in March 2018 — the first of many changes that saved Star Wars Battlefront 2’s and DICE’s reputation in the eyes of the community.
As one of the first narrative games released after Disney announced a single unified timeline for the Star Wars saga, Star Wars Battlefront 2’s campaign is officially part of Star Wars lore, meaning the events and characters within are canon — unlike popular characters such as Kyle Katarn (Dark Forces / Jedi Knight) who remains part of the old expanded universe canon.
Fortunately for fans of the grumpiest Jedi Master to ever live, that doesn’t mean he may not become canon, as many events and characters from older games have been reintroduced. Still, as of February 2023, the events of Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars: Squadrons, and Jedi: Fallen Order are the only canon Star Wars games, at least as far as Disney’s timeline is concerned.
Star Wars canon aside, the campaign is excellent and well worth playing for Star Wars fans and fans of first-person shooter narratives.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is a first person shooter game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts, it released on 17 November 2017, and is available on PC, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 supports:
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 offers the following matchmaking options:
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 supports the following peripherals:
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is rated PEGI 16+ and contains:
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the game that changed EA and caused Disney to re-evaluate its way of doing business in the video game market, and yet despite all that, it remains one of the most played titles in the world — with over 20 million new players joining the fight in 2021 alone. I fully recommend it to new players and veterans alike.
We found Star Wars: Battlefront 2 to be a good game, meaning it is likely to be enjoyable for most players, despite having a few areas that could be improved upon.
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