Players have long asked for it, and three months shy of a year later, DICE is finally delivering: offline battles are at last coming to Star Wars Battlefront.

Called Skirmish, Star Wars Battlefront's offline mode will allow players to partake in Fighter Squadron and Walker Assault battles offline against bots. Both modes (on consoles) will also support split-screen play. Two different difficulty levels will be available for Skirmish as well.

The new mode goes live on July 20 and will be completely free. It's a feature fans have long asked for in light of Star Wars Battlefront's lack of a single-player campaign. While a number of offline-enabled missions are already available in the game, they don't replicate the large-scale skirmishes seen in the game's online multiplayer battles. Skirmish will at long last change that, giving those who prefer to play alone the ability to partake in the massive battles in the air or on the ground.

Skirmish isn't the only new free addition heading to the game this summer. More Hutt Contracts for new weapons will be added in the weeks ahead, as well as more in-game events and free trial periods for the game's recently-released Bespin DLC.

DICE continues to tease new details about the game's next upcoming DLC, which adds new Death Star-themed maps and will be available in September. DICE says the DLC will include both new space and ground maps, new weapons, new Star Cards and two new heroes, one of which is said to be "larger than life."

It sounds like Chewbacca's arrival as the new hero for the Rebel Alliance is all but inevitable, but we will have to wait a little longer for official confirmation. EA and DICE will be detailing new information about the Death Star DLC pack at Star Wars Celebration Europe this weekend, so perhaps fans won't have to wait too long for new details.

Star Wars Battlefront news won't be all that comes out of Star Wars Celebration Europe. New details about Star Wars Rebels season three, Rogue One and maybe even Star Wars: Episode VIII are expected, so fans of a galaxy far, far away will definitely want to keep an eye out this weekend. You can read more about some of the big changes coming in Star Wars Rebels season three here.