Star Wars: Battlefront

Star Wars: Battlefront is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games based on the Star Wars franchise. Players take the role of characters from the franchise in either of two opposing factions in different time periods of the Star Wars universe. The series was launched in 2004 by LucasArts with Star Wars: Battlefront, developed by Pandemic Studios for LucasArts. The game received positive reviews and sold well. In 2005 Pandemic developed a sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront II, which was also critically and commercially successful.

The games were followed by Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron (2007) and Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron (2009) for handheld game consoles and Star Wars Battlefront: Mobile Squadrons (2009) for mobile devices. LucasArts made several attempts to develop a third major Battlefront game but no projects were released before The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of LucasArts. Subsequently, Electronic Arts (EA) acquired an exclusive license to develop console Star Wars titles from Lucasfilm, leading to the development of a reboot, titled Star Wars Battlefront from developer DICE, which was released on November 17, 2015. A sequel, Star Wars Battlefront II, was released on November 17, 2017, and was co-developed by EA DICE, Criterion Games, and Motive Studio. A collection of the first two entries in the original series ported to modern platforms by Aspyr, titled Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection, was released on March 14, 2024.

Games in the Battlefront series normally revolve around two armies – the Galactic Republic versus the Confederacy of Independent Systems or the Galactic Empire versus the Rebel Alliance or First Order versus the Resistance – fighting each other on various maps. Maps take place in the Star Wars galaxy, with battlezones varying in theme and size. Across the battlefield are multiple "command posts" (objectives) that act as spawn points, and can be controlled by either the player or the computer. Units can spawn from any friendly command post, and vehicles regularly spawn at their respective command posts when destroyed. Units can capture neutral or hostile command posts by approaching them and standing within the immediate vicinity for about 30 seconds. The time to capture quickens with more friendly units within the capture zone. Some vehicles act as mobile command posts, and must be destroyed as they can not be captured. On some maps (such as Hoth or Endor), certain structures also act as command posts that can not be captured. Command post capturing works differently on certain campaign missions as well. Playable heroes and villains play a significant role in changing the course of battles.

The objective of most matches is to eliminate all of the opponents' reinforcement tickets or to capture the command points, to slowly chip away at their tickets. Reinforcement tickets are used whenever a unit is killed, or when one faction controls a majority of the command posts on the map (usually when the losing faction only has 2–3). Only one objective needs to be completed. When all command posts are captured, the team with no command posts has twenty seconds to recapture or neutralize an enemy command post. If the team cannot take over a post in this time, the match is over. Certain campaign levels and multiplayer have requirements that differ from the general game play, however the general structure remains the same. The game's "Conquest" mode is based on the Battlefield game mode of the same name.

The first console games of the series were developed by Pandemic Studios, and since 2015, a second series of console Battlefront games has been developed by EA DICE. Battlefront II (2017) is the first in the series to accurately follow the canon of the films, while the games developed by Pandemic Studios were relegated to Star Wars Legends non-canonical status, along with all of the games in the series released before November 2015.

Star Wars: Battlefront is the first installment in the Battlefront series. It was released on September 21, 2004, with a Mac port by Aspyr released in July 2005. The game is available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac OS, and mobile phones. Jedi are not playable in this game without the help of modified files unsupported by LucasArts. Other NPCs made playable by similar files include, but are not limited to, Tusken Raiders in the Dune Sea of Tatooine, Ewoks of Endor and Gungans on the Naboo plains.

Star Wars: Battlefront II is the second installment in the Battlefront series, released in Europe on October 31, 2005 – for the PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, and Windows – and in North America one day later. There are some significant differences between Battlefront and Battlefront II. Battlefront II includes playable Jedi characters, space battles, and story campaigns, as well as Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith-related content. The release date of Battlefront II coincided with the release of Revenge of the Sith on DVD. The game is now an Xbox Platinum Hits game, a Sony Greatest Hits game in North America, and an Xbox Classics and PlayStation Platinum game in Europe.

Battlefront II expands upon the original game's single-player experience with mission-based objectives drawn from the first six Star Wars films. It has a story-based campaign which revolves around the 501st Legion (AKA "Vader's Fist") and its evolution from a legion of clone troopers serving the Republic during the Clone Wars to Imperial stormtroopers. Many maps from Star Wars Battlefront make a second appearance, and the game adds new locales such as Coruscant and Utapau. The game also introduces "heroes" – playable characters based on iconic characters from the Star Wars films who are much more powerful than regular soldier (and were also present in the original Battlefront, but only as NPCs that spawned randomly on the battlefield); the hero roster includes Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi and Aayla Secura (as well as Kit Fisto, available only on the Xbox version of the game via the Xbox Live patch), whereas the villain roster includes Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Boba Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Jango Fett, and Anakin Skywalker (as well as Asajj Ventress, also available only via the Xbox Live patch). There are more modes in this game, such as Conquest, Hunt (where players fight as natives on planets against other natives or certain troopers in an army, such as Wampas vs. Rebels on Hoth or Tusken Raiders vs. Jawas on Tatooine, to earn 50 points first), Capture the Flag (both with one and two flags), Assault (which, on Tatooine only, is also available as Heroes vs Villains, where one team plays as the heroes and the other one as the villains in a race to rack up points by defeating enemies) and space battles.