A new Battlefield game is in the works, teased as part of two other big reveals.
For this new Battlefield game, four of EA’s existing studios (DICE, Ripple Effect, Criterion Games and Motive will be working together under the new Battlefield Studios banner. Each developer brings something different to table, like how Motive is working on the single-player campaign, and DICE (the studio that birthed the Battlefield franchise as well as created a rather underrated racing game one time) is handling the multiplayer aspects.
This new Battlefield game, still untitled, is now in pre-alpha and you can playtest parts of the game via the new Battlefield Labs initiative.
The playtests will be taking only a few thousands players at first, with servers hosted in Europe and North America, but will roll out support for more regions (hopefully that includes Southeast Asia) and inviting ten of thousands more players into this initiative.
It’s interesting to see EA incorporating more and more playtests for games in development. The Sims has its own similar initiative, and the upcoming new Skate game has been conducting private playtests for quite some time ahead of its Early Access release.
There is glimpses of the new Battlefield game at the end of the hype trailer, featuring destructible buildings, chaotic gunfights filled with debris in what looks to be a contemporary setting. The landscape from the teaser looks to be arid, which may make some folks uncomfortable given real-world circumstances.
As part of Battlefield Labs, Battlefield Studios will be doing playtests to try out the following features (which means, these may be coming to the new Battlefield game):
- Destruction
- Conquest and Breakthrough game modes
- Class system (Assault, Engineer, Support, Recon)
At least it looks more like the contemporary Battlefield games like Battlefield 3 and 4, rather than the near-future take Battlefield 2042 went with. The core of what makes Battlefield games special is that feeling of being part of a small squad undergoing skirmishes in an even bigger war that can happen on land, sea and air. If it can do that, like how Battlefield 1942 wowed the world 20+ years ago, maybe it’ll be the big shooter game of whatever year this game comes out.
With this new Battlefield game currently in the works and Criterion joining forces, it looks like there’s likely won’t be any new Need For Speed game anytime soon. Unbound, the latest game in the racing game series, has announced it is ending live service updates.