Star Wars Battlefront sequel set for 2017 as DICE original hits 14 million sales

EA has revealed that a sequel to DICE's Star Wars Battlefront will be released "next year", after announcing that the 2015 reboot of the popular series had sold 14 million copies by the end of the last financial year on 31 March.

The gaming giant didn't specify whether they meant the next calendar year or the next financial year but a release alongside LucasFilm's Star Wars: Episode 8 in December 2017 seems a fairly safe bet. According to EA's chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen, the next game will feature "bigger and better worlds" and use locations from the new series of films. DICE's 2015 refresh of the series was set during the same time period as the original Star Wars trilogy.

Regarding EA's other Star Wars projects, Jorgensen added that the unnamed Star Wars game being developed by Visceral Games will "most likely" be released the year following Battlefront but no release information was offered for Respawn Entertainment's recent announced title, or that of Bioware's.

EA posts better-than-expected fiscal results

Star Wars: Battlefront drove the success of EA's financial results, which reported a $924m (£639m) net revenue, up from $896m last year.

Battlefront sold roughly one million copies in the quarter from January to March, which pushed revenue up 3% year-on-year thanks to new releases during the period that included Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2, EA Sports UFC 2 and Unravel.

"FY16 was a phenomenal year for Electronic Arts as we connected hundreds of millions of players to great new games, and helped them connect with each other through rich and dynamic live services," chief executive officer Andrew Wilson said in a press release. "The year ahead is packed with excitement. Fans are thrilled with the intense action and epic scale of Battlefield 1, our EA sports titles will take major leaps in innovation, and we'll bring new experiences from our most popular brands to more players on more devices."