Star Wars Battlefront II Is Adding A Prequel Planet To The Game

Some new information has surfaced just ahead of the EA Play event this weekend, set to take place in Los Angeles, California as a kickoff show for the following week of E3 festivities. During the livestream, Electronic Arts and DICE will reveal a prequel planet for the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront II. What's the planet? Naboo. What's the map? Theed.

The news comes courtesy of a quick update from the official Star Wars website, where a zoomed out snapshot of the Theed map was put on display during the news briefing. We don't actually get to see any of the actual map, but we do get to see the scope in which DICE will tackle the capital of Naboo.

According to the news snippet, the map will be showcased after EA's press conference and will have livestreamed gaming sessions broadcast featuring 20 vs 20 matches starting at 1pm Pacific Standard Time. It's obviously a much smaller map than some of the other maps, but the image seems to show otherwise.

The Theed city is depicted in a fairly large scope in the concept image. So I wonder how much of it players will be able to explore in Star Wars: Battlefront II? There's a strong likelihood that DICE will minimize the map to the courtyard, similar to what Pandemic did when they portrayed the Naboo map in the original Star Wars: Battlefront II.

Since they show the capital, it also makes you wonder if the map will take place inside of Queen Amidala's palace? Then again, the fight could take place in the plasma refinery located underneath the palace where Darth Maul fought Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode 1; it was a pretty large place with a lot of pitfalls and opportunities for sniping. Alternatively, the fight could center around the hangar area and the location just outside the hanger. Heck, there are a heck of a lot of opportunities and different areas that could make an appearance in the game.

In fact, given that the map scales to 20 vs 20 this means it's considered one of the game's larger maps, so there may be multiple areas to explore, similar to DICE's take on the Hoth map, Jakku or Endor.

At least we have some confirmation about one of the prequel maps that will appear in the game. In fact it's one of the things that gamers have been asking for since the sequel was announced.

Repeatedly, EA and DICE have confirmed that prequel content will make an appearance in the Star Wars: Battlefront sequel. This was teased during the initial reveal trailer where gamers were treated to images of Yoda and Darth Maul being playable in the upcoming game.

A lot of gamers have been begging EA to see some of the Clone Trooper combat and a look at the Separatist Trade Federation battle droids. I imagine we'll get to see the prequel era units in action on Theed during the EA Play conference or at least during the livestream event to follow the conference.

You can look for more Star Wars: Battlefront II info to go live this Saturday during the EA Play event starting at 12pm PST.