Battlefield is one of the biggest first-person shooter franchises in the industry. However, the franchise has been hit with a string of bad luck lately. Coming off the back of a successful Battlefield 1, Battlefield 5 was supposed to be the natural progression over to the World War 2 era. Things didn’t exactly go according to plan for EA though as Battlefield 5 somehow just kept on getting worse with each update.
What was initially a broken game turned into a complete mess by the end of its life-cycle. The game had some fundamental netcode issues that just made it unplayable at times. Furthermore, the cosmetics and other promised content didn’t make it to the game either. All of these issues eventually piled up resulting in EA’s decision to stop supporting the game.
A disastrous couple of years for Battlefield coupled with an incredibly successful Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game meant that the fan-favorite first-person shooter was no longer favored by the players anymore.
Battlefield 6 will be set during the modern-day
According to a recent leak though, it appears that work on the next Battlefield installment is already in it’s later stages. Apparently, the next Battlefield game will be set in the modern-day rather than the historical setting that the game has been following for the past few years. This report is also in line with what the fans have been echoing for a while now.
Some sources have claimed that Battlefield will make an appearance much sooner than you think. With the PlayStation 5 reveal hours away, we can expect some Battlefield news on the show as well. Furthermore, a deep dive gameplay trailer is also expected at this year’s online EA Play Live event.
The game will also include a full campaign rather than War Stories. In addition to that, we can expect the campaign to be very similar to Battlefield 3 and 4. In fact, many sources have pointed towards the game being a direct sequel to Battlefield 4.
DICE going back to the drawing board for Battlefield 6 multiplayer
However, with a game like Battlefield, the campaign is arguably not the main attraction. For what will presumably be called Battlefield 6, Dice has gone back to the drawing board. This means that the game will be completely built from the ground up, rather than being an evolution like Battlefield 5.
Additionally, Dice has also been working on fixing the netcode and gunplay. The developer has been looking at Battlefield 4 and its active community and hopes to learn more from that game. While not having the best of launches itself, Battlefield 4 quickly became one of the best games in the franchise after updates.
And, while the comparisons with Modern Warfare will be at an all-time-high, EA feels that Battlefield is not a direct competitor. This is partly due to the fact that Battlefield is not a yearly franchise, unlike Call of Duty. With reports of the 2020 Call of Duty being a Black Ops game, the comparisons would be interesting.
Internal issues at DICE
When Battlefield 5 came out in 2018, Call of Duty Black Ops 4 was its rival and we all know how that turned out. However, the problem with Battlefield games of late might not be so easy to fix. According to an ex-Dice employee, there is an inherent issue with the way Dice is operating right now.
There is a lack of morale within the company with limited backing from EA. In addition to that, the franchise has been neglected lately due to more resources being dumped into Battlefront 2. Adding on to his comments, the ex-Dice employee went on to say that there is a divide within the studio. On one hand, there is the creative team while on the other camp are the business overlords.
This lack of direction is exactly what led to the fall of Battlefield 5. Despite being a World War 2 game, it didn’t even get the chance to include the Russian frontier before essentially getting canceled. Moreover, many people have pointed out that turning the franchise into games-as-a-service might have been a mistake as well.
Having said that, if Dice can manage to cobble itself back together and figure things out, this could finally be Battlefield’s year. Going back to the modern setting is exactly what the franchise needed. Furthermore, with the next generation on the horizon, we can expect a graphical leap too.
Battlefield has always been extremely good at the theatrical aspect of war. It would be interesting to see how that carries forward into the next-gen.
Do you think that the next Battlefield game should be set in the modern-day? Let us know down in the comments below!