Star Wars: Battlefront III was 99 percent completed at the time of its cancellation, according to Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis. The game would have been the second sequel in the series that appeared on the PC, Macintosh, Xbox, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and mobile phones.
In an interview with gamesTM magazine via Now Gamer, Ellis spoke about Battlefront 3 and its cancellation.
"We were making a game with very high ambition," Ellis said. " You could start a battle on the ground, jump into a ship and fly into space, continuing on to dock in a capital ship and continue the battle there. We'd had to build all kinds of new tech and overcome numerous technical challenges and limitations but we had done it."
Ellis also said that he believed Battlefront 3 would have been the developers most successful game had it been released.
"We had a 99% finished game that just needed bug fixing for release," Ellis said. "It should have been our most successful game, but it was cancelled for financial reasons. I'm happy that people did at least get to see what we were working on and share the team's enthusiasm for it."
In the same interview, then Free Radical Design project manager, Martin Wakeley said that the developer's relationship with LucasArts starting to see trouble during the creation of the game.
"As a member of staff I could see our relationship with LucasArts becoming more distant and feared the worse," Wakeley said. "They had a change of management and a change of direction. I wasn't party to all the ins and outs but we had both our games signed with them, and it became apparent we needed to look for other projects fast. The management were very open and we were kept informed of all developments. We worked hard to try and get some projects signed but it wasn't to be. The writing was on the wall for a long time but people stayed loyal rather than jumping ship."
In 2009, Free Radical Design was acquired by developer Crytek and renamed Cyrtek UK and is currently working on the multiplayer aspect of the upcoming Cyrsis 3.
*Update: Thanks to one of our reader, we now know that there is currently a Facebook camapign going on to get the third installement of Battlefront made. You can lend your support by visiting 'Who Else Wants Star Wars Battlefront III.'
Watch the original Battlefront's trailer below...