The Star Wars Battlefront 3 rumor mill has picked up another voice. Joe Brammer, CEO of Bulkhead, the British studio behind the military shooter Wardogs, claims that EA's DICE and Respawn Entertainment are already working on a new Battlefront game. None of this has been confirmed by EA or Lucasfilm, so treat it as a rumor for now.
Brammer shared the claim on X on Monday (October 19th), quoting a post about the latest Battlefront rumors:
The post quickly passed 3,000 likes and has been picked up by several outlets. It is worth noting the wording here. Brammer says "from what I've heard" about Respawn, which means it is secondhand information rather than something he has direct knowledge of. He does not work at EA, and he did not share any further details about the project.
Where The Rumor Started
Brammer's comment came in response to a rumor that surfaced just hours earlier from an unusual place: Electronic Gaming Monthly. The long-dormant magazine returned with a new issue, #265, as part of its Compendium Kickstarter, and digital copies went out to backers earlier this month (October 9th). That issue revived the famous Quartermann rumor column.
Jeff Grubb read the Battlefront passage aloud on Giant Bomb's Game Mess Mornings on Monday. According to the column, Lucasfilm has been actively looking for a studio to make a follow-up to 2017's Battlefront II:
"The suits at Lucasfilm have been aggressively deploying probe droids for a development partner to take on the task of creating a follow-up. So far, no one has fully stepped up, but yours truly is hearing two major game studios are circling the project like a couple of snowspeeders, led by the completely unsurprising EA DICE, who we can hope learned from their loot box lesson."
The column then named the second studio, saying that if Lucasfilm did not hand the project to DICE, it "could land at none other than Halo, Destiny, and Marathon developer Bungie."
Grubb added his own caution on the show, saying "It doesn't sound like the game is in the works yet, but it does sound like there are conversations at the very least about who should take it on." VGC also pointed out that the column appears to have been written some time before it was published, since a few of its other rumors have already been confirmed.
Why DICE And Respawn Make Sense
On paper, Brammer's version is the more logical one. DICE made both modern Battlefront games, the 2015 reboot and 2017's Battlefront II, which went on to have a long life after its rocky loot box launch and still has an active player base today.
Respawn is also no stranger to Star Wars. The EA studio made Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and it was previously working on a Star Wars first-person shooter before EA cancelled that project during layoffs two years ago. Respawn also has deep shooter experience thanks to Apex Legends and Titanfall.
Brammer's own question about Battlefield is a fair one. DICE has been focused on Battlefield 6 and its live service seasons since the game launched last year, so splitting the studio's attention would be a big call for EA.
Bungie Is Not Necessarily Out
Brammer's post does not rule Bungie out either. In follow-up posts, he said he would like to see Battlefield and Battlefront exist in the same cycle, and in a separate reply he wondered how Bungie might change Battlefront's design if it ended up with the project.
So for now, there are two rumors pointing in slightly different directions. The EGM column says Lucasfilm is still shopping for a partner, while Brammer has heard development is already underway at EA. Neither EA, Lucasfilm, DICE, Respawn nor Bungie has commented, and there is no official announcement, platform or release window.
Battlefront fans have been burned by false hope before, but this is the most noise around a third modern entry in years.
Would you rather see DICE and Respawn team up on Battlefront 3, or would you like to see what Bungie does with the series?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.