With the Battle Royale market getting extremely saturated (especially after the launch of Apex Legends), would a new entrant into the scene be able to compete? Or has the Battle Royale genre already reached its peak and it is just a matter of time before the next big thing comes out? Well, the Battlefield V publisher EA seems to think that there is still room for improvement and expansion as far as battle royale is concerned.
When EA announced that they would be jumping on the battle royale bandwagon too with Battlefield V, it got some mixed reactions from the community. Mind you, the landscape has changed even more since then because we’ve seen the rise of EA’s own Apex Legends so there is a potential for people to be even more burned out on the whole battle royale thing. It might be really hard to reel people into another battle royale game, especially when it is not free-to-play.
However, after many delays, the long-promised battle royale mode for Battlefield V is finally here. It is called Firestorm and would be available to all Battlefield V players on March 25th on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. The trailer does show that EA might have some tricks up their sleeve to separate Firestorm from the competition. They did, however, miss the amazing and hilarious opportunity to call it Battlefield Royale. Anyway, the reveal trailer (below) for Firestorm sheds some light on what the players should expect from the highly anticipated update.
In Firestorm, 64 players will drop into the largest Battlefield map yet, Halvoy. Events that follow after the drop are still pretty familiar battle royale territory with players scrounging for gear and fighting their way to the top as the ‘Firestorm’ ring around them gets smaller with time. However, in classic Battlefield tradition, what separates Firestorm from other games is the wide arsenal of weapons and vehicles available to players. The players would be able to get some rather peculiar advantages by completing objectives. These include getting a farm tractor bundled with artillery, a helicopter, tanks and other abilities like the spine-chilling V1 rocket strike.
The full Firestorm experience would not be available to the players on the 25th of March though. The only modes releasing on the 25th will be four-player squads or solo. So, if you wish to play duos with your friends, you will have to wait until April for that. Criterion, the Need for Speed developer is the studio working on Firestorm rather than DICE. This might have happened because DICE have already got their hands full with the other weekly content and patches they release for the normal game.
Overall, Firestorm can be an intriguing addition to the battle royale landscape. It can bring that gritty, dark and classic World War 2 Battlefield feel to this genre which would be a nice change of pace. However, after the rocky launch Battlefield V had in light of all the controversies, bad PR and just a very buggy game at launch, it would be extremely hard for Firestorm to make its mark on the gaming landscape. The player base of Battlefield V is already getting thinner by the day with empty servers in some regions. You can also find the game at a fraction of its original price at many different retailers which gives us some perspective on how it is doing in the market.
Firestorm would probably never be able to compete with the free-to-play giants like Fortnite and Apex Legends but it might not have to. Even if it beats the likes of PUBG and Call of Duty Blackout, it would be a massive win for EA. We can’t wait for Firestorm to drop and see if EA have finally learned from their mistakes of the past. In the meantime, Battlefield V continues to get monthly updates and patches that have improved the game a lot since launch.