One studio goes dark, and a game fans have begged for since 2017 finally gets a green light. That’s the strange shape of this week’s EA news, and if you’ve been following Star Wars gaming for any length of time, you probably feel both things at once.
Here’s the headline version. EA is cutting roughly 3% of its workforce, BioWare is being shut down, and Respawn and DICE are being paired up to build Star Wars: Battlefront 3. The original Variety report set it all out in a single memo-driven story, and the reaction across fan spaces has been, well, loud.
Let’s take the two halves separately, because they deserve it.
The BioWare half: a proper goodbye
BioWare gave Star Wars fans Knights of the Old Republic. Let that sink in for a second. Revan, Bastila, Malak, HK-47, the twist on the Endar Spire that a generation of us still won’t spoil for friends. Then came Star Wars: The Old Republic, the MMO that has quietly kept the Old Republic era alive for well over a decade.
So the closure stings. The PC Gamer obituary leans on that KOTOR legacy, and EA’s stated plan to refocus on shooters and sports hardly softens the blow.
The SWTOR question is the one on every forum right now. The game’s lead writer has already called out BioWare publicly for snubbing the MMO, which tells you the team felt that tension long before the closure. Nobody outside EA knows who ends up looking after the servers, the Legacy system and the story updates. Will it be handed to another studio? Wound down slowly? Sold? Nothing official yet, and I’d treat any confident rumour with a very large pinch of salt.
Here’s my honest take: if you play SWTOR, your best move is to keep playing and keep making noise. Player counts and community activity are the only language a publisher really speaks when it’s deciding what to do with a legacy MMO.
The Battlefront half: a team-up that could actually work
Now the good news. Respawn and DICE together is, on paper, about the best pairing EA could have picked.
DICE built the look and sound of the 2015 reboot, the AT-AT assaults on Hoth that made people stop mid-match just to stare at the sky. Respawn gave us the Star Wars: Jedi games and a deep bench of people who understand lightsaber-era storytelling. One group knows how to make a battlefield feel like the films. The other knows how to make Star Wars feel like Star Wars.
The GamesRadar report on EA’s memo says the two studios are being brought together specifically for Battlefront III, which is a stronger signal than the usual vague “we’re exploring Star Wars shooters” line we’ve heard for years.
But let’s be sensible about expectations. Battlefront 2 (2017) left a scar. The loot box controversy didn’t just hurt a game, it hurt trust, and the studio has had nearly a decade to think about that. A new Battlefront that charges for power or buries progression behind randomised crates would be dead on arrival, and EA surely knows it.
What would win fans over? A short list:
- Era variety again: The Clone Wars, Original Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy, and ideally the High Republic
- Big, readable battles with proper vehicle combat
- Cosmetic-only monetisation
- A campaign worth finishing
That last one is the dark horse. A good single-player story could do for Battlefront what the Jedi games did for Respawn.
Why the money side matters
There’s a bigger story underneath all this. The Video Games Chronicle piece ties the closure to EA’s roughly $55 billion buyout and the debt that came with it, and it also confirms the next Mass Effect is cancelled. When a company takes on that much debt, it tends to narrow its focus to whatever pays reliably. Shooters and sports are reliable. Sprawling RPGs, historically, are not.
Think about what that means in practice. A story-heavy RPG can take years to build, and the payoff is hard to forecast. A sports title ships every year and a shooter can be sold on live-service updates. If you’re the one servicing the debt, that predictability starts to look like the only sensible choice, even when it costs you a studio with real heritage.
I don’t love that logic, but I understand it. Star Wars is one of the few licences that can justify a big-budget shooter, which is probably why Battlefront survived a round of cuts that took out one of the most respected RPG studios in the business.
What keeps a game community alive?
Here’s the thing that fascinates me about all of this: communities outlive studios. KOTOR fans are still modding, theorising and replaying a game from 2003. Battlefront 2 players kept servers busy years after the controversy. Fans stay because of habit, friendship and the sense of belonging to something with its own jokes and rituals.
Gaming communities tend to be built around a shared platform and a shared audience, and that is true well beyond video games. Australian players, for example, are a large online audience with their own habits, and many of them look for online casinos popular among Australian players the same way esports fans look for the right tournament coverage. Both audiences value reliable information, familiar platforms and communities that reflect their interests. The page is a ranked list of online casino reviews aimed at Australian players. For a reader who follows the gaming scene closely, it shows how that audience is served on the casino side.
What to watch for next
No release window yet, and I wouldn’t expect one soon. A merged team starting a fresh project usually means at least a couple of years of work, so patience is the name of the game. A teaser at a showcase or, fingers crossed, Star Wars Celebration LA in 2027 would be a natural moment for a first look.
Meanwhile, the Newsweek rundown puts the human cost at around 400 jobs, and that’s worth remembering in the middle of the hype. Real people made those games we love.
FAQ
Is Star Wars: Battlefront 3 officially confirmed? EA’s restructuring memo says Respawn and DICE will team up on the project, which is as close to official as it gets for now. There’s no title reveal, trailer or release date yet, so treat details beyond the studio pairing as speculation until EA shows something.
What happens to Star Wars: The Old Republic after the BioWare closure? Nothing has been announced. The game is still running, and its future depends on whether EA transfers it to another team, maintains it in a reduced form or winds it down. Fans should watch for official statements and avoid trusting unconfirmed forum rumours.
Will the new Battlefront have loot boxes? Unknown. After the backlash to Battlefront 2 in 2017, most fans expect cosmetic-only monetisation, and a return to pay-for-power would likely sink the game. EA hasn’t discussed monetisation, so this stays a hope rather than a promise.
Why did EA close BioWare? Reporting links it to EA’s roughly $55 billion buyout and the debt that followed, with the company refocusing on shooters and sports. The next Mass Effect was cancelled as part of the same restructuring, which suggests a broad shift away from story-heavy RPGs.
When could we see Battlefront 3? No date exists, and a newly merged team typically needs years to ship a big-budget game. A first reveal could plausibly land at a major showcase or event, but a launch within the next year or two looks unlikely.
The galaxy keeps turning, even when a studio doesn’t. Keep an eye on Jedi News for the first trailer, and for whatever EA decides to do about SWTOR.