Star Wars Battlefront Team Begins Shift to Battlefield 5

A portion of the DICE development team working on Star Wars Battlefront is moving on to the next Battlefield project, expected to be called Battlefield 5, which is scheduled for release in 2016.

Development director Dan Vanderlind wrote on his Twitter account that "a part" of the Battlefront development team will continue to work on the Star Wars shooter, likely in terms of online support and post-release content. The remainder of the team will be moved onto other tasks, and Vanderlind himself is switching focus to Battlefield 5.

He said: "Now that we've shipped Battlefront and a part of the team continues to work on it, I am moving on to another project, the next Battlefield."

The next mainline Battlefield game was first announced in October 2014, and at the time was scheduled for release in fall 2016. Publisher EA has already confirmed the game would return to military-style roots.

In a 2013 interview, DICE producer Patrick Bach teased the project, saying that it will offer "more features. More extras. More destruction."

Star Wars Battlefront shipped in November to a mixed response from critics. GameSpot's Battlefront review described the multiplayer-focused shooter as "an exercise in pure spectacle, laid out in all of its neon glory."

In March EA also published the spinoff Battlefield Hardline, which takes the series on more of a police and heists theme. The game also shipped to mixed responses, and several months later became the latest game given away for free to EA Access members.

Battlefield 4, which was the previous mainline game in the series, launched in 2013 and it was plagued by bugs and glitches. The game's fortunes have turned around somewhat, as it continues to see millions of players every day, some two years after launch.