Bad news, Battlefront fans: sources tell us a new entry in the series, in development at SOCOM: Confrontation developers Slant Six, has been canned, and a number of staff at the studio laid off as a result.
Slant Six managing director Brian Thalken told GameSpot "Our current project needs do not align with our current staffing levels", and confirmed that an undisclosed number of developers had been "temporarily" laid off, in the hopes that they can be re-hired once the studio's workload is able to support them.
The changes in "project needs" prompting the layoffs are, according to sources close to the studio, the result of Battlefront Online being cancelled by publisher Lucasarts. Apparently Lucasarts has a "stacked 2011 schedule" when it comes to Star Wars games, and wanted Battlefront Online out in 2010 to avoid this crunch. When it became clear last month that the game wasn't going to make a 2010 release, Lucasarts put the project "on ice".
So, the game comes and goes without us even getting an official look at it. A pity, but then since so many of you were cautious at the choice of developer for the game, it may not be such a bad thing after all.