The technology used in yesterday's leaked alpha footage of Star Wars: Battlefront III will die with the end of developer Free Radical's involvement in the project, according to a new report by Spong.

A former Free Radical employee supposedly told Spong: "It's my understanding that the game's been passed to a new developer, but the tech that allowed you to fly from the ground, to air, to orbit, to space dies with Free Radical's involvement."

Added the employee: "The new developer will be making it a cutscene every time you want to transition from ground to space."

Meanwhile, a new rumor out of Videogaming247 places the new home of Battlefront III at Pandemic, the creators of the original Battlefront game. Developer Rebellion had previously been rumored to be the new home of the sequel.

Here's some leaked shaky-cam alpha footage of Free Radical's Star Wars: Battlefront 3, a game that is now rumored to be in the hands of developer Rebellion following Free Radical's near-closure.

It's tough to make out at times, but even on a tiny screen, it is clear that Free Radical was aiming for an impressive scale with the team-based multiplayer sequel.

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It's a fairly safe bet to say that Haze and TimeSplitters developer Free Radical was definitely working on Star Wars: Battlefront III before firing most of its staff, as ex-artist Richard Smith has posted a few models from the project as examples of his work.

And while the models have since been yanked from Smith's official site, fansite SWBF3.de was able to archive and republish the images, which include in-game models of Han Solo and various other characters, all apparently from 2007.

The current status of Star Wars: Battlefront III is unknown, though rumors suggest the multiplayer-focused shooter has been assigned to Rebellion, which handled the PSP releases of Battlefront II and Renegade Squadron.

Rumors of Battlefront III popped up this past July, after Amazon.com briefly listed the as-yet-uannounced game for release on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PSP.

Listings for the rumored third entry in the battlefield-focused Star Wars Battlefront briefly appeared at retailer Amazon.com yesterday, and were promptly removed after garnering media attention.

The pages specified PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP versions of the title, all tentatively slated for release in March 2009.

The first two Battlefront games on PC, PS2 and Xbox were developed by Pandemic Studios. Rebellion handled the PSP edition of Battlefront II and the PSP-only Renegade Squadron entry.

With Pandemic currently working on at least three separate titles--Mercenaries 2, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Saboteur--another studio is believed to be handling the third Battlefront game. Some speculate that Rebellion has been tasked with the game, while Kotaku suggests it will be helmed by TimeSplitters and Haze developer Free Radical.