When Star Wars Battlefront launched in 2015, it looked incredible. Hoth looked cold enough to hurt. Endor felt dense and dangerous. Blaster fire snapped across the screen with that unmistakable Star Wars sound. DICE absolutely knew how to make the galaxy feel expensive. The problem was what happened when you wanted to play alone. For a game carrying the Battlefront name, the lack of a proper single-player campaign or deeper offline bot support was one of the biggest complaints. EA later acknowledged that skipping a single-player campaign was a deliberate decision tied to launching alongside The Force Awakens, but also admitted the game had been criticized for lacking depth and breadth. That is why the 2016 Offline Skirmish announcement mattered. EA Finally Gave Solo Players Something In July 2016, DICE introduced Skirmish, an offline mode that let players jump into Walker Assault and Fighter Squadron against AI bots. Console players…
Battlefront 2015
Star Wars Games (2012–2018): The EA Exclusive Era
When we closed the book on 2006–2012, it felt like LucasArts was wobbling. When 2012–2018 began, the wobble turned into a restructuring. And everyone felt it. This wasn’t a loud collapse. It wasn’t dramatic overnight silence. It was something slower and stranger — like watching the galaxy shift ownership while you were still standing in it. In April 2013, Disney shut down internal development at LucasArts.In May 2013, Electronic Arts was announced as the exclusive publisher for core Star Wars console and PC games. And just like that, an era ended. But what followed wasn’t a drought. It was a recalibration. Where This Era Sits in the Timeline If you’re reading this as part of the complete SWTORStrategies Star Wars Games archive, here’s the path so far: Now we enter 2012–2018. This is the EA Exclusive Era. And it is defined by two forces working at the same time: It’s…