EA details Star War Battlefront's "Drop Zone" mode

The announcement of the Star Wars Battlefront beta that's coming in October also included a mention of a new game mode called Drop Zone, and a promise to reveal more about it in the future. And the future, as the saying goes, is now.

Drop Zone is similar to a King of the Hill mode, in which teams do battle to capture a control point and then defend it from their enemies. But the control points in Drop Zone are pods that fall from the sky, and the trick is that teams won't know where they'll be until they land. EA said the mode "is all about action and quick thinking": Pods must be defended, but teams who stick to them too tightly risk getting hammered by an Orbital Strike.

"This goes hand in hand with our design philosophy behind many of the game modes in Star Wars Battlefront," Lead Level Designer Dennis Brännvall said. "We’re promoting the idea of a fast, action-packed game where you need to be mobile and think on your feet. Camping doesn't really pay off."

Victory will go to whichever team captures five pods, or controls the most when the ten-minute time limit is up. The process of claiming them is brief, but if neither team is able to hold one long enough to get the job done, another pod will drop, giving them something else to fight over (and presumably breaking the stalemate). Once captured, pods will open up to provide "Power Pickups" to the team that claimed them, but again, there's an element of risk: While you're waiting around for one to open, other pods, possibly containing better stuff, will still be dropping.

Star Wars Battlefront is set to come out on November 17.

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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.