EA confirms Star Wars Battlefront 2 will hit stores during the 2017 holiday season as an executive promises the game will have "bigger and better worlds."

Star Wars Battlefront may have received a mixed reception from critics and gamers when it released in November 2015 but EA has made it quite clear that it is happy with the title's sales numbers: Battlefront has shipped 14 million copies to date, well ahead of the publisher's expectations.

EA confirmed earlier this year that a sequel for Star Wars: Battlefront was in development for 2017 but the publisher revealed a few additional details during an earnings call on Tuesday. Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said that Star Wars: Battlefront 2 will be coming "a year from now," which would seem to imply a November 2017 release date, exactly two years after the release of the first game.

"We're working very hard on making sure that is an extremely deep and engaging offering," Jorgensen said during the investor call, which was first reported on by Polygon.

The tentative Fall 2017 release shouldn't be that surprising, but given that the previously announced release window was anywhere from April to December of next year, it's at least nice for Star Wars fans to be able to hone in on a more specific time frame. It's worth noting that Battlefront 2 sounds like it will release shortly before Star Wars: Episode VIII hits movie theaters in December 2017. When Star Wars: Battlefront released last November, it had some DLC tie-ins to Star Wars: The Force Awakens so one would expect some Episode VIII connections in the upcoming sequel.

Another thing gamers can expect from Battlefront 2 is a full-fledged single player mode. Some fans were quite upset when last year's game didn't ship with a single player campaign. Even Star Wars Episode VII star John Boyega made clear he thought the title should have had a story mode. EA and developer DICE tried to assuage concerns with an offline single-player skirmish mode months after the release but fan reception was tepid. This time around, EA has made clear that single player will be a priority from the get-go in Battlefront 2. Jorgensen alluded to the game having "bigger and better worlds" during the earnings call.

Star Wars: Battlefront may have met its sales goals the first time around, but at least some of that success can be attributed to the massive hype that surrounded the game leading up to its launch. Given that fans were clearly less enthused about the final product, EA and DICE will have to make sure Battlefront 2 lives up to expectations if the game is going to have success on the sales charts.

Star Wars Battlefront is out now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Star Wars Battlefront 2 will release Fall 2017.

Source: Gamespot