Now that Star Wars: Squadrons has been out for a solid week, and players have had time to get acquainted with its various features, many are inevitably beginning to wonder if the game’s developer has any plans to support the title with future content drops. Released as a budget $40 dogfighter from day one, Squadrons has never been billed as anything else, and while that means it doesn’t have anywhere near the scope of say, Battlefront II or Jedi: Fallen Order, there’s certainly more than enough on the disc to justify that price.
A solid single-player campaign as well as a surprisingly deep suite of multiplayer options makes this spinoff a worthy addition to EA’s library of Star Wars titles, and while the publisher will forever remain wary of attempting to further monetize anything branded by the franchise, paid-for content, rather than egregious microtransactions, appear to be something that most are still happy to shell out some cash for.
Despite that, however, Squadrons creative director Ian Frazier says there are currently no plans to expand on the base game, as it was never conceived as a live service project. Speaking to Upload VR in a recent interview, he said:
Never say never, so to speak, but as far as our philosophy goes we’re not trying to treat the game as a live service. We don’t want to say, ‘It’s almost done!’ and then dribble out more of it over time, which to be honest is how most games work these days. So we’ve tried to treat it in kind of an old-school approach saying, ‘You’ve paid the $40, this is the game and it’s entirely self-contained.
In this day and age, Frazier’s traditional approach to game design is refreshing, to say the least, and while the lack of DLC may come as a disappointment for some, EA Motive clearly set out to deliver a complete experience from day one which, if critical reception to the title is any indication, is an aim it achieved with flying colors. With that said, Frazier does say that add-on content hasn’t been ruled out entirely, so there’s still a chance, however slim, that we’ll see something substantial down the road. For now, though, what you see is what you get.
Star Wars: Squadrons is currently available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.