Battlefront: Renegade Squadron Interview

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Lucas Arts chose the week of Star Wars' 30th anniversary to unveil more details on the latest in the Battlefront series of multiplayer-focused first-person shooters. We spoke to K.C. Coleman, producer of Battlefront: Renegade Squadron, an in-development portable game that takes the brave step of featuring sixteen-player online combat on the PSP.

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Yahoo! Video Games: Give us the two-minute summary of Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.

K.C. Coleman: Sure. Battlefront: Renegade Squadron picks up where Battlefront 2 left off. We are coming back now with all the great action that Battlefront fans expect, with great space battles, great ground action, iconic locations, hero characters and hero vehicles. We've also now introduced a new feature called "customization," where instead of having a class, like a sniper class or a heavy gunner class, we allow the player to go in and, using a set amount of credits, buy different weapons and attributes so they can create the trooper that they want to play.

For example, if you wanted to play as a Wookie, the Wookie skin only represents what you look like. If you buy a rocket and a jetpack, you can play as a Wookie flying around shooting rockets. Adding in this customization feature adds a ton of replay value and a huge amount of strategy to the game too.

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Plus, we've also got a great new campaign mode telling the story of the Renegade Squadron. After the first Death Star has been destroyed, all the Rebels are weak and know the Empire is coming back to take them on. Han Solo is charged with forming a group of guys that don't need any training, that are battle-hardened already. So he relies on a friend of his called Commander Col Serra to find these guys. They're the scum of the earth, but they don't have any allegiance or love for the Empire. The story takes us all the way through to the end of Episode VI, where the shield bunker and the second Death Star eventually get destroyed.

Then, of course, we're adding in a great new feature: sixteen-player matches over the Internet. This is going to be really fun for the PSP. Players can log on to our dedicated servers and play with people from all around the world.

YVG: Why do you think developers have been slow to offer online play on the PSP?

KCC: We've been thinking about this. We went out and did some research, to find out whether sixteen players would really be appealing. Battlefront lends itself very well to both a single player experience and a sandbox multiplayer game as well. It was very much a natural transition for us.