Star Wars: Battlefront III Remake Will See Free Steam Release

There are many current adult gamers out there who have fond memories of piloting starfighters in dogfights and leading the Clone armies to victory in 2005’s beloved Star Wars: Battlefront II.

The proper successor to that game, Battlefront III, was under development in 2006, but was abruptly cut short a few years later after conflict between developer Free Radical Games and LucasArts.

Electronic Arts and DICE released a rebooted Battlefront last year. However, many fans were disappointed by the game’s lack of a single player story or modes.

Now, however, indie developer Frontwire Studios is placing new hope into the canceled game and is working to release its version of the project.

Titled Galaxy in Turmoil, the game is being developed using Unreal Engine 4 and will feature battles in timelines ranging from the Clone Wars to the Galactic Civil War with all of the classic Battlefront modes.

This fan-made project received an even bigger push when company president Tony Fergie Romanelli announced a deal with Valve last week.

“After ongoing discussion between Valve Representatives and myself, Valve/Steam has agreed to ship Galaxy in Turmoil to it’s millions of users for FREE,” wrote Romanelli.

In a follow-up post today, however, Romanelli quashed any indication that Valve was officially endorsing the project.

“People seem to assume that because Valve has agreed to place us on Steam that we have some sort of backing from them and we are using them to circumvent EA/Disney,” wrote Romanelli today in a post titled “Fact Check.” “This is purely speculation and is 100 percent false.”

Another major hurdle for the project is the solid, indisputable fact that Frontwire does not own the intellectual property to Star Wars. That, of course, now belongs to Disney and EA for future games.

With that in mind, there is a strong chance that the Big Mouse could present Frontwire Studios with a cease and desist.

“Our law team has never once advised with 100 percent or even 60 percent certainty that we won’t be shut down,” wrote Romanelli. “We have never been told that we fall under the Fair Use laws without a shadow of a doubt. Fair use is subjective based on the court. We know that, however, we do believe we fall under the four fair use factors that are used to judge copyright infringement.”

If Disney or EA does force Frontwire’s hand, Romanelli said he would be willing to give the completed game to the companies, going as far to concede to the possibility of only users with a current copy of last year’s Battlefront having access.

While we wait and see how this plays out, revisit our feature on the nostalgic disappointment that was last year’s Battlefront.