Before the EA Star Wars Battlefront that released recently was a project, there were rumours that a sequel to the last two Battlefront games made by Free Radical was in the works. LucasArts denied that it existed when the DICE version was given the go ahead, but some fans decided that if the supposed game would never see light of day through EA’s hands, they’d do it themselves.
The fan-project tilted “Galaxy in Turmoil” has been in development at Russian outfit Frontwire Studios, and has been freely billed as the remake of the Battlefront III that never was. They plan to offer the game for free, but there’s still some tricky hot water the studio could get themselves into with Disney over the fan-game. However, in an odd turn of events Valve have already agreed to distribute the game on their digital Steam store.
“It is with great pleasure that as of today I am able to officially announce that Frontwire Studios has officially signed a distribution deal with Steam/Valve for the game Galaxy in Turmoil,” revealed Frontwire president Tony Romanelli. “By Steam agreeing to ship Galaxy in Turmoil we are not only adding more validation and awareness to the project by opening up the game to a whole new audience, we’re also cementing Frontwire Studios’ reputation as an up and coming developer with the opportunity to now publish our games on Steam in the future. This will help us ultimately achieve our goal of making the games that you, the community want.”
While admitting he had “mild concerns” over Disney moving to halt the project, he seems pleased that Valve has decided as they have saying that it means that Valve “clearly lacks the same concern.” He has encouraged others to take a chance on the project by taking a leaf from Valve’s book.
“Take a deep breath and just take a chance on our project. In the end, it’ll pay off for everyone involved. Especially the community.”
It remains to be seen of course if Galaxy in Turmoil will make it to the Steam Store, as the threat of Disney forcing the project’s halt is still a very real possibility at this stage.
