It looks like EA are still trying to bring attention to “Star Wars Battlefront”, as it’s been recently revealed that the company will add the game to their EA Access service, which works similarly to PlayStation Plus and others, allowing players to enjoy various games for free for as long as they remain subscribed.
Usually, EA Access is used to bring attention to games that need some extra recognition, either because they’re old or because they’ve failed to get a positive response in their initial release. In the case of “Star Wars Battlefront”, most fans are suspecting the latter, and it’s not hard to see why.
The game didn’t exactly come out to strong responses, and even though many players were impressed with the overall gameplay quality, the game still had various issues which more or less doomed it. It didn’t help that it was trying to replicate the success of its predecessor and failed miserably at that, so now those who didn’t get a chance to experience the title after its original launch will get another try.
There are plenty of players who still defend the game and claim that it’s worth even as a paid title and not a free offering, but it’s hard to tell if those are objective opinions or coming from hardcore fans of the franchise who refuse to give up.
In any case, EA are adding a few other titles to the service as well, including “Mirror’s Edge Catalyst”. The game suffered a similarly poor fate as it didn’t come out to very positive responses, but was warmly received by some fans.
Hopefully this will inspire some players to check out the game despite what they’ve heard about it, and give it a chance. Many reviewers still claimed that it had a lot to offer despite some of its issues, so maybe we’re going to hear some more positive responses a few months from now.
One detail about the availability of “Star Wars Battlefront” has been bothering some fans, as there is no news about the game’s DLC. It’s possible that EA are going to make the additional content available for free as well, but it would actually make more sense for them to keep the expansions separate.
That way, they can attract players to the main game and possibly entice them to spend some money on the DLC. On the other hand, the current situation may lead to some fragmentation of the game’s already fragile community, but at least there will be no shortage of players on the base version.
Meanwhile, EA also added several well-known PopCap games to their EA Access catalog too, including “Zuma”, “Bejeweled 2” and its successor, “Bejeweled 3”. More games are rumored to be planned for the service soon, so we might hear some additional announcements until the end of the year. It’s also possible that EA are preparing a more major surprise that they are hiding until the last minute.
EA Access has been running quite smoothly ever since it was launched, and the company has been doing a great job promoting their titles and bringing new customers to their platform. In fact, some gamers are reportedly quite pleased with the overall style of the company recently, and they’ve changed a lot from the EA we knew in the past.