Frontwire, the developer of the fan-made game based on the canned Star Wars: Battlefront 3, has announced that Valve has agreed to host the title on Steam. Frontwire, which is staffed by volunteers, told Polygon that the game will be permissible under United States fair use provisions as it’s free and the developers have not raised money to fund the project.
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We’ve reached out to Valve to verify the agreement, and will let you know should they get back to us. Sadly, the game was canceled fairly deep into the production cycle (so deep that a playable prototype actually leaked earlier this year), but some fans made a decision to take up the mantle and finish what Free Radical started almost a decade before.
That free release will be key – as long as Frontwire makes no money from the project, it can argue it is not making a profit from the game. The team also has plans to supplement the release with free content after launch, which is a hell of a lot of dedication for a team doing this purely out of love.
Frontwire president Tony Romanelli wrote that while he has “had mild concerns [himself] from time to time” about potential cease and desist orders, “Valve clearly lacks that same concern”. “By agreeing to publish Galaxy in Turmoil, Valve is assisting us in growing and ensuring the longevity of the Galaxy in Turmoil project and community as a whole”, as the post continued. A free downloadable fan game is one thing, but Galaxy in Turmoil getting a Steam release just upped its profile substantially.
He asserted that Valve believes in the project and does not seem concerned as it has agreed to publish Star Wars: Galaxy in Turmoil. Still, this is a Star Wars game featuring Star Wars vehicles, characters and settings.
Galaxy In Turmoil is an Unreal Engine remake of Free Radical’s Star Wars Battlefront 3, which was all but complete before being cancelled in 2008.
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No official word, though, on its release date, and the official Steam store page of the game hasn’t appeared on the platform yet. Right now all we Star Wars aficionados can hope for is Disney’s good graces.
