E3 2017: Star Wars Battlefront 2's DLC Is Free, But There Are Things To Spend Money On

Following the big Star Wars: Battlefront II multiplayer reveal earlier today, GameSpot spoke with design director Niklas Fegraeus about the sci-fi shooter's free DLC plans and more.

A number of high-profile games are offering their DLC maps and modes for free, including Halo 5 and Titanfall 2, and the Battlefront sequel joins them for some of the same reasons. Fegraeus told us that giving away DLC maps ensures that everyone can play together. In 2015's Battlefront, EA added numerous maps as paid DLC, and as time rolled out, the community became more and more splintered, leading to player figures falling.

"I think the main thing here is to keep the community together," Fegraeus said about Battlefront II's free DLC model. "In terms of the brand, to me, when it comes to Star Wars, that's a family feeling. If you're a fan, you're a part of the family. And splitting that up and saying, 'If you have this content you can play here, but if you have this content you can play here.' And if you don't share, you will be split up. What we wanted to do was have a journey that starts at the launch of the game. So when the game launches, this journey starts with different seasons [of DLC]."

Battlefront II's first season of themed DLC launches in December, themed around this year's new Star Wars film, The Last Jedi.

The overarching goal for Battlefront II's free DLC campaign is to allow players to stay together, whether or not they've spent any (extra) money on the game.

"No one will ever be locked away by some purchase that they made," Fegraeus said.

Although Battlefront II won't have a DLC pass, EA will still make more money from the game beyond game sales alone. The game will offer microtransactions for people who want to speed up their progress, Fegraeus confirmed.

"When you want to progress and get stuff, you can either play the game and when you play you earn the in-game currency, and with that you can spend towards whatever you want," he told us. "If you want to accelerate that, if you can't play for a week, you can purchase that. The important thing is everything can be earned [through gameplay]. If you're someone who spends time on the game, we love you, do your thing, do what you want to do. If you don't have the time, you can spend money and we love you as well. It's your choice."

Fegraeus also assured fans that Battlefront II won't allow players to pay to win.

"No, it's not about buying the winning item," he said. "That's not how it works. No one can say, 'I'm going to spend my zillion dollars and then I'm going to dominate.' That's not how it works."

Battlefront II launches in November for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. A lot of new multiplayer footage was released today during EA's E3 briefing--watch it here.