It’s been almost ten years since a Star Wars Battlefront title has hit the market, and the third release in the series has a lot to live up to. Slowly but surely, Electronic Arts and DICE are peeling back the game’s layers, giving fans a steady stream of information about the project. So far, the two companies promise that most of the elements that made the first two entries franchise popular will remain, and that they’ll be experimenting with some adventurous new ideas.

Just yesterday, DICE design director Niklas Fegraeus announced that Star Wars Battlefront gameplay will be shown at E3, and detailed a new “Fighter Squadron” mode. While that news should be enough to keep almost everyone happy, many Star Wars Battlefront fans are still wondering why the game won’t have space battles. Thankfully, in the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach explains why the Swedish developer shied away from including cosmic Starfighter combat in the newest Battlefront.

As previously reported, Patrick Bach says:

We want players to stay in the same [environment] – we don’t want players to fly off and do something over here. It’s about the Battlefront experience, so we want to keep you in-atmosphere and fighting with the infantry.

In addition to DICE‘s desire for somewhat constrictive maps with practical gameplay, Bach explains that DICE wants to make sure that the primary Battlefront experience – the on-ground infantry battles – are solid, before adding extra features. As he puts it:

[As a studio] we have to start somewhere. You can’t do everything at once. We want to build something that’s great for what it is, and have a holistic view on what we’re trying to achieve, rather than tossing everything in there from the start.

Essentially, Bach implies that, in order for EA and DICE to successfully re-introduce the commercially successful and critically lauded Star Wars Battlefront franchise, it’s best to focus on layingas a solid foundation before getting too ambitious. That being said, Bach’s explanation suggests space battles are likely in Star Wars Battlefront 2 – or, at the very least, a DLC pack for the current reboot, should the game hit its lofty 9-10 million copy sales target.

So far, all of the news related to Star Wars Battlefront indicates that Electronic Arts and DICE could very wellhit that goal. It’s obvious that the developers care about authenticity, especially since they scanned, recreated, and rendered official Star Wars film props for the game. On top of the visuals and quality control, there are plenty of gameplay features that should win over those fans who are sitting on the fence. For instance, being able to pilot the Millennium Falcon should be enough of a reason to stop complaints about the game’s lack of space battles.

Star Wars Battlefront is set to release on November 17, 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.