In December 2007, LucasArts and Free Radical signed a new contract for a sequel, Star Wars: Battlefront IV, requiring Free Radical to further increase its staff. While Battlefront III would not be officially announced, or even acknowledged, by LucasArts, the deal between them and Free Radical was the subject of a press release at the beginning of August 2006. The game was to be much more ambitious than the previous Battlefront games, both in regard of its scope and supporting technologies. To do this, LucasArts reached out to Free Radical Design (who was already working on Haze), and the two companies made a deal during summer 2006, with development starting soon after. In 2006, LucasArts President Jim Ward wanted to publish a third Battlefront game as part of the company's ongoing strategy. ' even though we thought we didn't want to do work for hire as a principle, the fact that the work for hire was Star Wars did make a difference ' ―David Doak while contradicting statements from a former LucasArts employee, who wished to remain anonymous, along with a retort by Steve Ellis (who acknowledged that according to the level of details, he might know who that employee was), were published on GameSpot. Free Radical Design developers, in particular three of its co-founders: Steve Ellis, David Doak, and Graeme Norgate, would be featured in articles by and Eurogamer.

The vast majority of what is known about Battlefront III can be tracked down to a few online articles published in 2012 by specialized outlets, based on statements from parties directly involved. Building up on the legacy of the two previous games, Battlefront III would have made possible for players to seamlessly transition from ground battle to space battle, by taking off in or landing a spaceship.

Battlefront 2 vs battlefront 3