Star Wars Battlefront II: Celebration adds Rise of Skywalker characters
Even BB-8 will join in the action.
A new Battlefront II edition will be the biggest one yet.
Star Wars Battlefront II is launching a new edition to celebrate the upcoming release of the ninth Star Wars movie, The Rise of Skywalker. The question is whether this new version of the game will be enough to win over fans who still have a bone to pick with the publisher, EA .
Star Wars Battlefront II: Celebration Edition comes out Thursday and will include all the previously released content encompassing characters from the first two Star Wars trilogies along with new playable units, maps and outfits, called appearances, for characters from the new trilogy. Players who already own Battlefront II can upgrade to the new edition for $25, while new players will have to pay $40.
The Rise of Skywalker content will be released via an update on Dec. 17. It will include updated appearances for Finn, Rey and Kylo Ren, who are hero characters that are more powerful than the regular units, but they're only available when players acquire enough battle points during a match to use them on the battlefield. The new jungle planet seen in the trailer for the film will also be available as a map, but not until the film releases on Dec. 20.
Another update in January will include BB-8 and the evil droid BB-9E, along with adding the Jakku map to the Capital Supremacy mode.
The #StarWarsBattlefrontII Celebration Edition is a $25 upgrade for existing players and $40 for new players. It comes with more than 25 Hero Appearances, more than 125 trooper appearances, more than 100 emotes, and more than 70 victory poses: https://t.co/8e9QeVnvlV pic.twitter.com/QnojAa0pwO
— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) December 4, 2019
Originally released in 2017, Battlefront II was highly anticipated by fans of the earlier games but became the focal point of the controversy of microtransactions. In its original state, the game had several popular heroes like Darth Vader only unlockable via in-game currency that could take 40 hours to acquire or by buying the currency with real money. This caused a huge backlash, leading EA getting rid of microtransactions in the game.
Originally published Dec. 4.
Correction, Dec. 11. An earlier version of this story included incorrect information about the new content in the new edition and the hero mechanic.
