Star Wars: Battlefront Modder Finds Further Evidence Classic Collection Uses Their Mod Despite Aspyr Promising It Wouldn’t

ign.com:

A veteran Star Wars: Battlefront modder has dug further into the recently released Classic Collection and uncovered more evidence that the controversial release used their mod despite developer Aspyr promising it wouldn’t.

Last month, IGN reported on concern from the Star Wars: Battlefront community sparked by the Classic Collection’s debut trailer, which suggested the game used a mod that brought a previously Xbox-exclusive Battlefront 2 DLC to the PC original.

The original, Pandemic-developed Battlefront 2 that launched in 2005 had a DLC pack exclusive to the original Xbox version that added two new heroes (Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress), as well as four maps. Both Kit and Asajj had unique animations and moves no other characters had.

In 2021, modder iamashaymin brought the DLC to PC, reskinning two existing characters to look like Kit and Asajj (Ki Adi Mundi for Kit Fisto and Aayla Secura for Asajj Ventress). In the mod, Asajj does not hold her unique Linksabers (fiber cord-linked twin red lightsabers added especially for her in the DLC) in one hand, but instead wields two separate lightsabers, one in each hand, like Aayla does in the original game. Similarly, Kit fights like Mundi.

At the time, developer Aspyr insisted the release of Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection "does not include any code or content that is taken from uncredited sources", telling IGN it "mistakenly" included "content that is not in the product" after capturing placeholder footage for the trailer last fall.

However, following Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection’s catastrophic release, which has resulted in an ‘overwhelmingly negative’ user review rating on Steam, iamashaymin said there was evidence to suggest the game did indeed launch with their mod, or at least portions of their mod, before updates stripped them out, in a revelation that has sparked criticism of Aspyr. iamashaymin called it ‘a terrible gut punch.’

To back up this claim, here's a screenshot of that bubble effect