Star Wars aficionados await the release of Episode VII: The Last Jedi, which is scheduled to hit theatres on December 15th, but before we get to that galaxy, gamers will get a chance to immerse themselves in Star Wars Battlefront II.
Back in 2015, Electronic Arts DICE rebooted the old Battlefront franchise and, despite the mixed reviews found at IGN and GameSpot, the game was able to sell 13 million units by year’s end and became one of the best-selling titles of the year. Unfortunately, it didn’t have staying power and, although the game was entertaining to play, it had its problems and left fans asking for more.
And more is exactly what we can expect from Star Wars: Battlefront II.
But will more in-game features mean more in sales?
Back in January, Trevor Dueck, an expert entertainment odds-maker from SportsBettingDime.com, did not include Battlefront II in his top-ten favorites to lead the global-sales list by the end of 2017. Are prognosticators underestimating the power of the force?
There is no question that Battlefront II will be in the top ten in sales, and it could actually finish close to no. 1. If you look to the past, the number one-selling game, according to VG Chartz, in 2015 and 2016 had unit sales around 10 to 12 million worldwide, mostly on the Sony PS4 console.
Back in 2015, Battlefront did the majority of its sales on the PS4, selling 8.52 million units, plus about 4.2 million units on the Xbox One. The majority of those units were sold in Europe and North America. Evidently, Asia and the rest of the world wanted to Pokemon rather than wield a lightsaber. But I digress.
The early buzz is that DICE has heard the criticism of their first attempt, especially from Star Wars star John Boyega, and have improved the gameplay, expanded the content, and added a single-player campaign that bridges the story between The Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.
With that knowledge, you can at the very least expect version two to perform around the same in terms of sales numbers, likely better. There was enough to like about the 2015 version and a lot of the goodwill should transfer over to a more robust version coming out shortly.
Will it win the game of the year? Probably not, but it will have more modes, maps, and heroes for fans to enjoy, so in that sense, it’s already a winner. But don’t just take my word for it, the BETA version is now available.
May the Force be with you.
