Former Star Wars Battlefront 3 Dev Claims It Was ’99 Percent’ Done, but the History Is Complicated

“It feels like enough time has passed to announce that Star Wars Battlefront III is out. [sic] Incredibly legal, the fact that it was canceled two yards from the finish line is an absolute crime.

Barclay was referring to Free Radical’s Star Wars Battlefront 3. It was in development until canceled in 2008. His statement was in response to a simple question posed to developers. It could be an IP you wanted to work on, a studio you wanted to work in, any kind. “

Barclay, who now works as a lead designer at Naughty Dog, shared his story, adding that “gamers don’t know what they’ve been robbed of.”

It feels like enough time has passed to say that Star Wars Battlefront III is incredibly legal and the fact that it was canceled two yards from the finish line is an absolute crime. Gamers don’t know what has been stolen. https://t.co/zZUu8JR3iV

— Michael Berkley (@MotleyGrue) April 16, 2023

The complex history of Battlefront III.

Berkeley’s allegations are not new. Back in 2012, Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis also claimed that Star Wars Battlefront 3 was “99% done.” This has led a former LucasArts employee to denounce the studio, and it’s been repeated many times before The Deep reopens under his silver in 2021.

“This 99% finished thing is just a lie.” A former employee at the time claimed to GameSpot“A generous estimate would be 75% of a mediocre game.”

They went on to claim that Free Radical continually failed to hit their milestones and that the game didn’t work in 2007, but LucasArts has announced Battlefront’s next-gen follow-up on Xbox 360 and PS3. Yes, at least because Star Wars Battlefront and its sequel sold very well on PS2 and Xbox.

The claim led to a war of words in the press, with Ellis posting a lengthy statement claiming that Battlefront 3 was “75% of a mediocre game,” with leaked footage he said he backed up. He went on to say, “Lucasarts was a troubled company in 2008.” Shortly after Ellis’ comments, LucasArts was shut down by his Disney, which had acquired Star Wars the previous year.

IGN reached out to Barclay to see if they had additional context, but did not receive a response.

In the years that followed, more footage and playable builds emerged, allowing fans to judge for themselves what was missing. Much of that footage was eventually deleted, and Battlefront III was ultimately lost to history.

EA would later reboot the series, but there are some notable differences from the original LucasArts game, such as how space battles are handled. The original Battlefront game combined the prequels and the original his trilogy era, in a way that pitted players against each other in large-scale space battles where players could board and attack enemy capital ships, and still do today. It continues to be loved by fans. This included large single-player games that EA’s games weren’t available until sequels.

You can still play the original Star Wars Battlefront 2, but some settings are required for it to work properly. Voted the fifth best Star Wars game of all time by IGN readers, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is his number one.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s Senior News Editor and co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Any tips? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.