'Star Wars: Battlefront' Ditches Battlelog For New System Built From Scratch

Amidst all the pre-launch excitement surrounding Electronic Arts' Star Wars shooter, there has been concern about "Star Wars: Battlefront" being just another "Battlefield" game in "Star Wars" skin. Those harbouring this notion might have to reconsider their stance after making a note of this announcement from the developer itself. The upcoming shooter will not be using "Battlefield's" de facto standard Battlelog service to connect players.

Used by millions of gamers every week, Battlelog is the social layer of DICE's "Battlefield" military FPS that allows players to communicate, browse servers and otherwise connect with other players in the game. Until now, it was simply assumed that "Star Wars: Battlefront" would use DICE's existing online matchmaking systems. However, Gamespot reports that the developer has just revealed that "Battlefront" will forsake Battlelog and use its own matchmaking/social networking implementation instead.

The move was confirmed by DICE's Assistant Producer Jesper Nielsen through a post on popular videogame forum NeoGAF. The strange part is that the Electronic Arts' Swedish subsidiary by the name of Uprise is involved in the development of "Star Wars: Battlefront." That's especially peculiar because the studio was instrumental in developing the Battlelog component for "Battlefield."

"While Uprise has been doing Battlelog, does that automatically mean that we will do Battlelog for Star Wars Battlefront?" wrote Nielsen on the forum. "No, it won't. That can only be an assumption, and I can tell you, no, there won't be Battlelog for Star Wars: Battlefront."

The decision was further confirmed after another DICE spokesman took to Reddit to elaborate on the matter. The representative shed further light on the nature of the new system, and that it will be "built from scratch." From what little has been revealed on the Reddit post, it seems the Battlelog replacement for "Battlefront" won't be as feature rich as its "Battlefield" counterpart.

The post confirmed that the new matchmaking/social networking system will not support "browser game launching," which is one of the advanced features associated with Battlelog. The DICE spokesman, however, refused to divulge any more details of the capability or even the name of the new matchmaking system.

Thankfully, PlayStation Lifestyle managed to get in touch with DICE Design Director, Niklas Fegraeus, who confirmed that the game will feature more than eight multiplayer maps at launch, with more than two maps per planet. The game will also incorporate an offline single player component dubbed "Missions." The mode will allow gamers to "play solo or cooperatively with bots on or offline." That sounds like just the game mode needed for PlayStation 4 users who haven't paid up for PlayStation Plus service.

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Star Wars Battlefront Reveal Trailer (credit: Official EA UK)