In the months since EA began fixing Battlefield 2042 ships, the path EA will take with the next Battlefield has slowly come into view. This may not be obvious if you’re really focused on the changing state of 2042. Behind the scenes, however, EA and series creator DICE have been building the foundation for what could very well happen. no This will be just a standard sequel to the legendary military shooter series.
In the simplest terms, EA is clearly hoping to regain its long-lost dream of seriously competing with Call of Duty. Judging from all the moves and changes the publisher has made over the past year, it appears the plan is to emulate what Activision has done with its own series.
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What better way to follow a winning team’s formula than to hire that team’s coach? Nearly three years ago, EA named Byron Beede as general manager and senior vice president of the Battlefield franchise. Just before his reign on Battlefield, Bede spent several years at Activision, leading Call of Duty and Destiny. More relevantly, he is thought to have essentially used the latter as a blueprint for transforming the former. That is, turning Call of Duty into a live service, ongoing game.
In fact, Beede’s appointment was made before Battlefield 2042 was officially announced, let alone released. When it finally launched, you could tell that a lot of the vilification of it was rooted in its desire to be a live service project. It’s unlikely that the veteran executive had much input into the game’s direction at the time, but even so, EA’s ambitions to transform Battlefield into Call of Duty were clear.
To its credit, EA – as far as anyone can see, anyway – has invested a lot of resources and talent into Battlefield 2042. This is obviously a major project for DICE, but the game also has significant co-development support from Ripple. Effect (formerly DICE LA)’s collaboration with Battlefield Portal – not to mention Criterion Games’ other contributions – led to the decline of its own Need for Speed game.
In that sense, the moves EA has made in recent months – again to bolster production on the next mainline Battlefield – don’t look all that different. But what worries me is the how and the why.
After Battlefield 2042’s disastrous launch, EA briefly retreated and then orchestrated a full-scale game development effort. DICE Reorganization, and handed the creative reigns to Respawn (and classic Call of Duty) veteran Vince Zampella. Our goal was to salvage everything one could really do from the burning shell of the game at the time, while quietly laying some foundations for the future in the background.
The change in focus also comes with the creation of a new studio, led by Halo co-creator Marcus Leto, to create narrative content for the series. Even after Lehto started getting serious about building a team and naming it Ridgeline Games, no one knew what that actually meant.
It looks like a cohesive plan, one being executed before our eyes. EA then turned to Criterion again for help developing Battlefield, which gave it a familiar feel. Things changed, however, because about 20 months later, before we’d seen anything the team was working on, EA unceremoniously shut down Ridgeline Games as part of wider layoffs at the company.
So what happened? Has EA reconsidered plans for single-player, narrative-driven Battlefield content, or is there something else going on behind the scenes?Well, just a few days ago, EA suggested that those aspirations might not be completely abandoned just yet, as it introduced There are more after finishing Studio Input: Motivation. The people behind the Dead Space remaster are now responsible for the storytelling and narrative aspects of Battlefield.
Do you see a pattern here?
To recap, that’s DICE Scotland, Ripple Effect, Criterion, and now Motive – all of which play a role in Battlefield in some way. There’s no doubt that EA is once again trying to replicate rival Activision Blizzard’s highly successful Call of Duty formula. Over the years, the Call of Duty publisher has managed to turn nearly every studio it owns into developing the shooter in one way or another.
Typically, core studios would lead each year’s premium release, while support studios work in the background on free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone. All other remaining studios will be assigned work as needed. Some create cosmetics, others develop the PC port, and still others contribute to various modes in Zombies, seasonal content, and peripherals. Without Call of Duty, there would be no Activision Blizzard, so everyone needs to do their part in the Call of Duty mine.
Is this the model EA is building today? Bede’s involvement is certainly a good sign. In fact, EA told investors directly that the next Battlefield is taking inspiration from Call of Duty: Warzone, specifically in terms of how the F2P mode ties into the larger CoD ecosystem. That’s not to say the next Battlefield won’t flaunt a unique identity – the series backfired the last time it tried to appeal to a different audience. Those in charge know this, and early murmurs point to a return to classic Battlefield.
But I can’t help but feel that EA is putting the cart before the horse here. At its core, committing to a major shift in how Battlefield is presented and packaged seems a bit unusual. I clearly haven’t seen what the EA big guys have in mind; maybe the next Battlefield is indeed a throwback and the company is confident enough in it to justify this support.
Perhaps this is all a posturing, though, in an attempt to create a game that can shoulder the responsibilities of a live-service shooter as Apex Legends nears the end of its lifespan. It’s probably impossible to expect the gaming industry to be built on organic growth, rather than hedging your bets and working hard to hit targets because that makes the most business sense.
Anyway, I really, real Hopefully the next Battlefield won’t be a flop. Otherwise it will join EA’s giant graveyard with Medal of Honor, and I hate to see that happen.