Exciting Community Playtests Announced for Upcoming Battlefield Title
EA has showcased a preview of its upcoming Battlefield title as it initiates what it refers to as its “most ambitious community testing initiative in the history of the franchise” – a project named Battlefield Labs.
Players will likely be involved from now, with the initial testing phase launching “in the following weeks”. The start of Battlefield Labs arrives, according to EA, as the game’s development enters “a crucial stage that will greatly benefit from community collaboration like never before”.
Anyone interested in participating may need to agree to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to experience familiar modes such as Conquest and Breakthrough, the return of the class system, along with “fresh concepts”. (I wonder if this includes the mode that developer Ripple Effect is working on, which many speculate to be a battle royale?)
The new Battlefield title is being crafted by a massive team distributed across four primary EA studios, all operating under the collective title of Battlefield Studios. As previously mentioned, this includes the franchise’s originator DICE, the newly named Ripple Effect studio, the creators of Star Wars Squadrons and Dead Space Remake, Motive, and Criterion, the former UK studio that brought us Burnout and Need for Speed.
It will also definitely exclude Ridgeline Games – the studio previously led by ex-Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto that had been focusing on a narrative-driven Battlefield campaign – which was shuttered last year. Development on that mode is now expected to be handled by Criterion.
Meanwhile, Motive is the sole developer within Battlefield Studios confirmed to be actively working on another project (its under-wraps Iron Man game, which appears to be quite distant).
As reported by Eurogamer today, all efforts on Criterion’s Need for Speed franchise are currently on hold – although there is a promise that the series will continue at some point in the future.
All attention is directed towards EA to revive Battlefield as robustly as possible, following the unenthusiastic reception of Battlefield 2042, which fell short of expectations.
EA previously indicated that its new Battlefield game will be set in contemporary times, featuring a return to its original classes and more focused maps.
There is no information today regarding the exact timing of when the next Battlefield game will actually be released. EA is primarily focused on assessing the performance of Battlefield Labs first, as well as how the rest of 2020.