Star Wars Battlefront will not support in-game voice chat

Star Wars Battlefront

Star Wars Battlefront is a team-based game, and thus a certain amount of coordination is paramount to success. A well-organized team is always going to fare better than a bunch of hot-headed random goofs with guns, after all, which is why the Empire was able to so easily handle the smuggler, the farm boy, the old coot, and Upright Lassie when they tried to save the princess from the most heavily-armed battlestation the galaxy has ever seen. It thus came as something of a surprise to learn that the game will not have integrated support for voice chat.

"You can choose your favorite third party software to communicate with friends on PC," EA tweeted in response to an inquiry about voice chat. The PS4 and Xbox One versions, for those curious, will utilize their "built-in party system for in-game chat."

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Practically speaking, it's not really a big deal. Gamers who want to talk to their fellow players have various options at their disposal, and Origin itself supports it, although I believe that's only good for people in your friends list. I suppose it's the principle of the thing that rubs me the wrong way. Star Wars Battlefront is the very definition of a big-budget game, so why is a fundamental feature being overlooked?

This is really more of an FYI than an OMG, but how do you feel about it? Is integrated voice chat a feature that should have been included, or is it something better left to separate, dedicated software?

The Star Wars Battlefront beta is now over, by the way, so anyone hoping to get in a few more rounds on Hoth (as I was) will have to wait for the full release of the game on November 17.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.