The wait for D.I.C.E. LA’s Battlefront reboot is killer. So many fans of the Star Wars: Battlefront have been waiting patiently for a new entry in the franchise, and yet… we almost had a direct sequel. Before EA got the Star Wars license, there was a sadly ill-fated Free Radical (developers of Timesplitters) sequel in production.
An internal production trailer, demonstrating the completed Alpha stage.
We’ve seen bits and pieces of over the years. Now, it turns out we can see a lot more than just a few table scraps. YouTuber BananaSwag has managed to obtain the Xbox 360 pre-Alpha code to the 2008 version of Battlefront 3. Over the course of several months, he has been going through individual maps and modes. This includes content previously thought inaccessible, according to previous attempts by PTOP, the only channel to previously obtain a copy of the game.
Understand: the footage and versions found by BananaSwag and PTOP are from extremely early versions of the game. Even the above trailer is further along, and there’s some contention over whether the game was nearly completed before cancellation. Here are some of the levels BananaSwag was able to get working.
Kashyyyk (Homeworld of the Wookiees):
Dathomir (Home to the Nightsister Sith Witches):
Mustafar (Where Anakin and Obi-Wan Dueled in Episode III):
Cloud City (in Hero Assault Mode):
The Invisible Hand (General Grevious’ Ship):
BananaSwag as said that he will post more footage as he is able. Apparently anyone with an Xbox 360 Developer Kit can run the 2008 build of the game, but those are both rare to find. Those builds are in a gray market as they are technically licensed, not sold, to developers. So, while the prospect of seeing/playing a piece of gaming history is intriguing, I wouldn’t get your hopes up about playing this on a home console.
This is a 360 port of the game’s simultaneously developed PC version, so there’s a slim chance maybe that PC version is out there too. Either way, Battlefront 3 remains one of the most sought pieces of Abandonware out there. We may never know if it was a genuinely good game hampered by bean counting or a terrible game mercifully killed, but at long last, come Christmas 2015, we’ll finally see the new Battlefront game. Until then, we can at least see what could have been.
