EA’s Star Wars Battlefront will not feature any dedicated voice chat system on either consoles or PC.
In a recent tweet, EA confirmed that players picking up the title next month should be prepared to simply use their respective console’s party chat functionality when coordinating the attack plans of their squads.
@moodyknowsall Battlefront will utilize the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One built-in party system for in-game chat.
— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) October 13, 2015
EA has also informed PC users that they will need to choose their “favorite third party software to communicate with friends on PC.”
The news seems a bit odd for a game that is best experienced when working as a team — especially on the incredibly difficult Rebel side of a 40-player Walker Assault match. While it may be true that many people would choose to chat in a party among friends anyway, the decision pigeon-holes players into either a 12 or 8 player chat limit on Xbox One and PS4 respectively in game types that allow up to 20 players to compete on a team together.
The Star Wars Battlefront beta ended today, after having more than 9 million users participate. The full game is set to launch November 17, 2015 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.