The memo announcing about 400 layoffs and the BioWare shutdown contains a single sentence looking ahead to one specific game without naming it: “we’ll be bringing together our Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project.” The name of the game comes from elsewhere. According to Variety, that project is Star Wars Battlefront 3. EA itself has never written it.
What the EA memo says, and what it leaves out
Cam Weber, president and chief studios officer, and David Tinson, president and COO, sign the text. In the section on shooters, they write that Battlefield 6 was “a great success” and that EA will “leverage the technology to deliver a shooter portfolio that unlocks growth.” Then comes the sentence on Respawn and DICE, which comes on top of the “future Battlefield titles,” followed by “We can’t wait to share more when the time comes.”
Apex is also in the memo, where EA keeps investing “heavily” for several years, along with two big launches ahead, Marvel’s Iron Man and the next Star Wars Jedi. It gives no name for the joint project, no platform, no date, and no split of roles. These points are part of what we could not find in any source.
Star Wars Battlefront 3: a name reported by Variety, not announced by EA
In its article by Todd Spangler, Variety writes that the memo does not identify the project, but that “multiple sources” confirmed it is Star Wars Battlefront 3, for Lucasfilm. Variety does not name its sources. This is the pivot of the story: EA has confirmed nothing, and the title rests on this one press report.
Other outlets repeat Variety. MP1st (Alex Co, October 21) publishes large excerpts of the memo and headlines a project “confirmed by EA,” which is true of the collaboration and not of the game’s name. PC Gamer is clearer: the news is “reportedly” so and “not officially confirmed.”
A rumor two days before the memo
On October 19, Joe Brammer, CEO of Bulkhead (the studio behind Wardogs), wrote on X: “DICE and from what I’ve heard Respawn are working on Battlefront 3. Not sure what that means for Battlefield.” The Game Post (Abdullah Jawad, October 21) also recalls a rumor published a few days earlier in the “Quartermann” column of Electronic Gaming Monthly: Lucasfilm would be looking for a partner for Battlefront 3, with DICE and Bungie among the studios considered. That lead does not match what Variety says, and nothing has confirmed it to date.
Rumors about a third Battlefront come back every year. Brammer’s weighs more because an official memo delivered half of the information two days later: the two studios are indeed brought together.
Why EA closes BioWare and bets on shooters
Variety notes that these decisions are EA’s first major move since going private: the $55 billion buyout, led by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, closed on August 4. The memo speaks of a “hard look at our business” and of concentrating teams, technology and investment behind three strategic priorities. For action-adventure, EA says it will focus on fewer large projects at a time.
Our reading, drawn from these texts: shooters are the segment where EA shows a recent success, Battlefield 6, rated 82% by PC Gamer, and where it holds the Star Wars license with Lucasfilm. BioWare, whose last game in the works was a Mass Effect still at an early stage, fits none of the listed priorities. The memo does not say one pays for the other, and we do not claim it. The buyout left EA with $1.8 billion in interest to pay every year, as detailed in our August 14 article.
What this changes for Battlefield
Brammer’s worry, “not sure what that means for Battlefield,” finds a first answer in the memo: the collaboration comes “in addition to our future Battlefield titles.” According to EA, the series continues. What the text does not settle is how teams are split. DICE made Star Wars Battlefront in 2015 and its sequel in 2017, as well as Battlefield 6; the memo does not say how many of its developers will work on the joint project.
MP1st guesses that DICE could take the multiplayer and Respawn the single-player part. That is the site’s own supposition, and no source confirms it. As for player expectations, Empire notes that Battlefront II received its last update six years ago. Fans have been asking for a sequel for nearly a decade, as The Game Post notes.
What we still do not know
- The name of the game: reported by Variety, never confirmed by EA.
- Platforms, release date, game engine: nothing in the sources we read.
- The role of each studio: Empire speaks of a game “actively in development,” with no further detail.
- Lucasfilm’s reaction: no statement found.
The memo promises to say more “when the time comes,” and EA holds a town hall in November. Until then, the right formula remains PC Gamer’s: EA has brought DICE and Respawn together, and Star Wars Battlefront 3 is the name the press gives their project.
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