Millions of gamers are still taking part in online multiplayer shooter Star Wars Battlefront, Electronic Arts said during its Q1 financial call overnight.
Apparently, the three-month period ended June 30, 2016, boasted around 6.6 million active users for the science-fiction shooter, which may surprise some gamers who were under the impression that support for Battlefront had cooled somewhat since its November launch.
Star Wars Battlefront has also seen fresh content released during the period outlined in EA’s fiscal call, notably June’s Bespin DLC. There was also a free trial of the game offered to players in mid-May, which no doubt boosted interest in the title.
Speaking in a Q&A released following the Q1 results, Andrew Wilson, the CEO of EA, commented:
"As each movie comes out over the time of our relationship, we expect that the Star Wars community will continue to grow and we will be doing our best to align, in some cases, the content and experiences and, in some cases, just the passion for Star Wars.
"But certainly aligning what we’re doing around the Star Wars universe with what’s more broadly happening with Star Wars pop culture. And we think that’s a win as we continue to live up to the fans long term."
Star Wars Battlefront 2 coming in 2017
Earlier this year, the publishing giant confirmed plans for a follow-up to Star Wars Battlefront, which will be released for PS4, PC, and Xbox one at some point in 2017. No further details are known at this point, though hopefully the much-requested offline mode will show up in some form.
In addition to Star Wars Battlefront 2, EA also has a number of other titles in development set within George Lucas’s sprawling franchise universe, including a new Star Wars title from Visceral Games (the project was briefly glimpsed at E3) and Respawn Entertainment.
Of course, that’s not to say support for Star Wars Battlefront is dwindling; there’s still new content in the pipeline for release this year, as well as a PlayStation VR-exclusive offering in the works.