The following Battlefield is modern-day, ditches specialists, and a few of us might get to play it early

EA has lastly began speaking concerning the subsequent Battlefield in no unsure phrases. The challenge, which is aiming for launch someday in 2025, will convey the sequence again to its modern-day roots. Other than the setting, the following sport will ditch the Specialists/hero characters, which debuted with Battlefield 2042.

EA additionally launched the primary piece of idea artwork for the sport, exhibiting clear Battlefield 4 inspirations.

The artwork, which EA revealed to IGN, doesn’t inform us a lot. You’ll be able to see assault helicopters within the distance, and a metropolis – seemingly someplace in Europe – being ravaged by wildfires on one facet and fight on the opposite.

Vince Zampella, who took over franchise management in 2021, following a restructuring that happened after the disappointing launch of Battlefield 2042, advised IGN that the following Battlefield shall be going again to fundamentals, mentioning its Battlefield 3 and 4 inspirations.

“I imply, in the event you look again to the height or the head of Battlefield, it is that Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4 period the place the whole lot was trendy,” stated Zampella. “And I believe now we have to get again to the core of what Battlefield is and do this amazingly properly, after which we’ll see the place it goes from there. However I believe for me, it is that peak of Battlefield-ness is in that Battlefield 3 and 4 days. So I believe it is nostalgic for gamers, for me, for the groups even.”

One other component Battlefield 2042 tried experimenting with was increasing the maps and rising participant counts to 128 gamers, one thing that developer DICE ultimately shifted away from and went again to the sequence’ well-established 64-player counts. Whereas Zampella didn’t definitively say the following Battlefield will stick with 64, he strongly recommended that play areas shall be “extra akin to earlier Battlefields.”

The teachings DICE discovered in bringing Battlefield 2042 again from the brink shall be going into the event of the following sport, too. Zampella harassed that it doesn’t need a repeat of the 2042 launch. “We wish it to be good out of the gate,” he stated.

In pursuit of that aim, the developer plans to contain the neighborhood a lot earlier within the course of and win the belief of the core fanbase again. Zampella stated that we are able to anticipate alternatives to playtest the sport subsequent yr; maybe a revival of the Battlefield Neighborhood Check Surroundings, which served a key position within the growth of Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1.

Curiously, whereas the veteran govt and developer didn’t affirm rumours of a free-to-play, Warzone-like mode within the subsequent Battlefield, he did say that one of many key objectives of the following title is providing greater than a single expertise beneath the identical banner.

“It is getting into and increasing what Battlefield is,” he advised IGN.

“Now we have to have the core. The core Battlefield gamers know what they need. They have been with us without end, they have been superb supporters. We have to earn their belief again and get them again on our facet. After which it is increasing out and getting extra gamers into the universe and seeing what we are able to do, so whenever you need a completely different expertise, you do not have to go away Battlefield. You’ll be able to expertise extra issues throughout the Battlefield universe. So we’re increasing the choices that we’re giving.”

We anticipate the following Battlefield to be revealed subsequent yr.