I favored Battlefield 2042’s experimental character—lonely hikes throughout its large 128-player maps jogged my memory of how superior the size of Battlefield 1942 felt again in 2002—however I held a minority opinion on that one. For the subsequent Battlefield, the sequence’ new boss goals to recapture what he calls the “peak of Battlefield-ness” present in Battlefield 3 and 4.
That boss is Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella, who beforehand co-founded Infinity Ward and helmed Battlefield’s greatest rival, Name of Obligation. EA introduced in 2021—not lengthy after Battlefield 2042’s disappointing launch—that he is now overseeing the Battlefield sequence. In an interview with IGN this week, Zampella dropped a couple of particulars about what we will count on from the subsequent sport, which continues to be unnamed.
The massive information is that the subsequent Battlefield will return to the trendy setting of Battlefield 3 and 4—the final three had been WW1, WW2, and close to future—and can ditch two of the options that made Battlefield 2042 stand out at launch (in a foul manner, for a lot of): 128-player maps and specialists, which changed courses with characters who had particular skills and devices.
“I do not know what the rationale [for specialists] was, however for me, it is just like the group tried one thing new,” Zampella advised IGN. “It’s important to applaud that effort. Not all people favored it, however you bought to attempt issues. It did not work. It did not match. Specialist won’t be coming again. So courses are type of on the core of Battlefield, and we’re going again to that.”
As for 128-player maps, Zampella mentioned that they are “designing one thing that’s extra akin to earlier Battlefields” and that he’d “reasonably have good, dense, very nice, well-designed play areas” than a giant quantity for the sake of a giant quantity.
There aren’t many extra particulars to share past that, however the large image Zampella’s placing down is: We’re going again to Battlefield 3 and 4.
“I imply, when you look again to the height or the top of Battlefield, it is that Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4 period the place all the things was fashionable,” Zampella advised IGN. “And I believe we’ve to get again to the core of what Battlefield is and try this amazingly properly, after which we’ll see the place it goes from there.”
He went on to discuss with these video games because the “peak of Battlefield-ness” and the “heyday” of the sequence, but in addition threw in a point out of Battlefield 1942 to appease previous dudes like me.
EA hasn’t been completely clear on what the subsequent Battlefield factor, or issues, will truly be, however we all know that numerous studios are engaged on the sequence: DICE, Motive, Ripple Impact (which made Battlefield 2042’s cool customized server characteristic known as Portal), and Criterion. There was one other studio making a singleplayer Battlefield expertise, Ridgeline Video games, however it was closed earlier than we bought any particulars on what it was as much as.
Zampella advised IGN that, though EA is increasing the scope of the Battlefield sequence, “core Battlefield gamers” are nonetheless the precedence. “We have to earn their belief again and get them again on our aspect,” he mentioned.
Battlefield 2042 bought its ultimate season earlier this 12 months in order that improvement may totally shift over to the subsequent sport, and in line with Zampella, they’re now “play testing the sport each week,” however we do not have a launch date, or perhaps a identify. My guess is that the subsequent predominant sequence sport will likely be known as Battlefield 6 to emphasise its connection to Battlefields 3 and 4, however it’s only a hunch.
You possibly can learn extra of Zampella’s feedback on the way forward for Battlefield in IGN’s story. It feels like a reveal is probably going subsequent 12 months. The idea artwork on the high of this text is new, by the way in which, and would possibly include some clues about what to anticipate. Naval battles, once more?