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15 June 2015
- From the section Technology
Gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) will release Star Wars Battlefront on 17 November, the firm announced at gaming conference E3.
The game, which features digital copies of props and locations from the original film trilogy, can be played multi-player, solo or against AI.
EA also revealed new versions of some of its best sellers, including Mirrors Edge, Need for Speed and Fifa.
A trailer for highly anticipated game Mass Effect: Andromeda was shown.
However, very few details were given.
Mass Effect: Andromeda will contain a new lead character and a new galaxy, and is due out next year.
EA’s existing Star Wars offering is also set to expand.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Knights of the Fallen Empire will have a “Bioware style story” said Bioware Austin developer Jeff Hickman.
It will be available for free to EA subscribers when it launches on 27 October.
Mirrors Edge: Catalyst will tell the origins story of the title’s heroine Faith and appears to feature Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman.
A new game, Unravel, features a small knitted creature called Yarny who leaves a trail of red wool as it explores fantasy lands.
“The yarn represents love,” said developer Martin Sahlin from Swedish firm Coldwood.
“You are the red thread that runs through someone’s life trying to tie all the missing parts back together.”
EA was also keen to display its sports portfolio, including Fifa 16, which will feature female teams for the first time in the title’s history and “no touch dribbling” effects, the result of motion capture sessions with Barcelona player Lionel Messi.
Players of NBA Live 16, released on September 29, will be able create a basketball character in their own image using the firm’s “HD scanning technology” said exec producer Sean O Brien.
“NBA Live 16 is routed in self expression,” he said. “Your entire in-game journey is all about you”.
The mobile market has proved lucrative for EA, said senior vice president Sarah Ryan, with 715 million downloads across 235 countries.
New titles include Minions Paradise, based on the characters from the Despicable Me movie franchise.
The press conference, which also featured a guest appearance from football legend Pele, a costumed superhero zombie from popular title Plants versus Zombies and a man called Hoop Gawd who was called to the stage to give a demonstration of the face scanning used in NBA Live 16, received a mixed reception.
Keza MacDonald from gaming site Kotaku said it was “not the most exciting”, while Steven Burns from Videogamer described it as “one of the most bizarre conferences I’ve seen in a long time”.
“It would have been [a disaster] if it weren’t for the Battlefront footage looking absolutely superb,” he wrote.
You can follow all of the BBC’s coverage from E3 2015 via the hashtag, #e3bbc
