A team of Star Wars fans have banded together to attempt to remake Star Wars Battlefront III, the controversial, ill-fated Star Wars shooter that was in development at Free Radical before being canceled. Eurogamer discovered that developers at Russia-based modding team Frontwire Studios are working to revive and remake the game as part of a project called "Galaxy in Turmoil."
"'Galaxy in Turmoil' (previously 'Project Rebuild (FRD) BF3') by Frontwire Studios plans to remake what Battlefront III was meant to be," reads a line from the project's ModDB page.
The remake will include maps set on Hoth and Tatooine, as well as test areas. It is also planned to support the X-Wing and Y-Wing flying vehicles, along with weapons such as the DC-15S Blaster Rifle, Republic Grenade Launcher, Republic Missile Launcher, Z6 Rotary Blaster Cannon, and A280C Blaster Rifle.
Galaxy in Turmoil is being produced using Epic's Unreal Engine 4, and developers at Frontwire said they do not plan to charge for anything. Still, because it uses the Star Wars license--presumably without permission--it's possible Disney may get involved to shut it down.
The remake's developers include TheDarkSithLord, ColeT2014, CoolJedy, Corra_Ashu, and Dinozavr. Frontwire is also inviting people with development experience to help out, while you can track the game's progress here in its forums.
You can see some screenshots and videos of Galaxy in Turmoil's current build here on ModDB.
Despite numerous and detailed attestments to its existence and development, LucasArts never actually confirmed that Battlefront III was in fact in production. The game has long been the subject of much rumor, speculation, and head-butting.
In January this year, gameplay footage stemming from what appeared to be a leaked prototype version of Battlefront III emerged online.
"After a lot of work I managed to get my hands on Star Wars Battlefront III and wanted to share the infamous canceled game that I'm sure many of you wanted to play," the person who leaked the footage said at the time. "I know not everyone will get the chance to play this immediately, but over time I expect the modding community to be able to change that."
That's now exactly what's happening.
EA launched a new Star Wars Battlefront game in November for PS4, Xbox One, and PC--it was a big, big hit. Multiple sequels are apparently also on the way.
