Everything points to EA wanting a piece of the Call Of Duty pie (EA)
While fans wait for an official reveal for the next Battlefield game, an alleged former developer claims most of its developers are completely new to the series.
With development on Battlefield 2042 wrapping up last year, fan attention is squarely on whatever EA is cooking up next for the series. But while EA has said quite a bit about Battlefield’s future, it’s yet to actually show anything.
It’s apparent that EA has big plans for Battlefield, as no less than four different studios are working on the series ‘to build a Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer and single-player experiences.’
EA CEO Andrew Wilson called it the ‘the largest Battlefield team in franchise history,’ but it’s since been claimed that all four studios are collaborating on a single game and most of the staff have never worked on a Battlefield title before.
This comes from Bluesky user Rizible, an alleged former staff member at Battlefield series developer DICE, who posted a lengthy thread about Battlefield’s recent history over the weekend.
Their most intriguing claim is that a whopping 98% of staff who have worked on Battlefield have all left EA, meaning the next game is mostly being handled by newcomers.
Aside from DICE, EA has enlisted three other studios – Criterion, Ripple Effect, and EA Motive – to work on Battlefield.
It’s a move very similar to how Activision divvies up Call Of Duty projects amongst multiple studios, which is perhaps unsurprising given that Call Of Duty veteran Vince Zampella is in charge of the series now.
With hints of a Warzone style live service game, it’s clear EA is looking very closely at Activision’s success, as something to emulate. Although that’s hardly a new aspiration for the series, from EA’s perspective.
Rather than having them all focus on different games, Rizible claims that the four studios are instead working on different aspects of the same game (unofficially dubbed Battlefield 6), which is rumoured to be launching this year.
‘I haven’t worked there since the pivot to pull in Criterion and Motive,’ says Rizible. ‘I do think it’s interesting that the four studios are splitting up work based on content areas and not each building their own game (like the [Call Of Duty] studios do).’ They also go as far as to claim EA is aiming to copy the Call Of Duty release schedule with annual releases.
They cap off their thread with, ‘If you’re a Battlefield fan, temper your expectations. This is a new era of the game made by a completely new group of people, following a new philosophy. Whether that’s good or bad depends on your personal outlook.’
EA’s own comments and actions certainly point to a massive push for the series, with previous rumours suggesting that the next Battlefield has undergone more playtesting than any other entry.
Whether that will pay dividends remains to be seen but despite many failures in recent years, EA continues to return to the Battlefield series, where other companies might already have given up.
Battlefield 6 is expected to be everything Battlefield 2042 wasn’t (EA)
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