Star Wars Battlefront Season Pass Includes 16 Maps, 4 Heroes, More Star Cards

EA has revealed the earliest details for the Star Wars Battlefront season pass. The $50 bundle includes a cross-section of content, including maps, modes, heroes, and gear.

The listing that appears on EA's Star Wars website indicates that players will get access to four more heroes, four additional modes, twenty new pieces of gear (including Star Cards), and sixteen new maps.

That last bullet point caught our eye. The core Star Wars Battlefront game ships with four locations (planets) and 13 maps spread across them. These are largely dependent on mode, and there is only one large map per planet.

This is the full list of Battlefront maps that come with the retail and digital release.

• Forest Moon of Endor (Large - Supremacy, Walker Assault)
• Swamp Crash Site - Endor (Small - Drop Zone, Droid Run, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Imperial Station - Endor (Small - Cargo, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Outpost Beta - Hoth (Large - Supremacy, Walker Assault, Fighter Squadron)
• Ice Caves - Hoth (Small - Drop Zone, Droid Run, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Rebel Base - Hoth (Cargo, Droid Run, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Sorosuub Centroplex - Sullust (Large - Supremacy, Walker Assault, Fighter Squadron)
• Imperial Hanger - Sullust (Small - Cargo, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Sulfur Fields - Sullust ((Small - Droid Run, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Jundland Wastes - Tatooine (Large - Supremacy, Walker Assault, Fighter Squadron)
• Jawa Refuge - Tatooine (Small - Drop Zone, Fighter Squadron, Droid Run, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Rebel Depot - Tatooine (Small - Drop Zone, Cargo, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)
• Dune Sea Exchange - Tatooine (Small - Drop Zone, Droid Run, Heroes vs. Villains, Hero Hunt, Blast)

The list seems normal for a multiplayer game, until you look at which maps support which modes. If you prefer to play large scale battles, you actually are only playing on four maps, not the full thirteen.

At first blush you might think that the $50 season pass adding 125 percent more maps is an anomaly. However, that's actually significantly fewer than DICE's last game, Battlefield 4. That $50 season pass tripled the number of maps bringing the total from 10 to 30. That title also featured a full campaign.

Battlefield Hardline shipped this year with nine maps. The first two of four DLC packs already released contain four maps each, and the season pass costs $50. 

The maps in the Battlefield series are further segmented (like a Battlefront "location") into smaller maps for modes that are best served by condensed action for lower player counts. In this way, Battlefront maps are more analogous to Battlefield "locations" than that title's "maps."

[Source: EA]

Our Take
With no campaign and a relatively scaled back Season Pass at the same price, for those looking for varied terrain, this deal is getting worse all the time. However, if EA drills down and makes each of those maps a winner, this could be a case of quality over quantity. Until we see it all laid out (which won't be until after all the DLC is released), we won't be able to fully determine if this $50 season pass is of lesser value than DICE's past efforts.