EA has shared early first details for the next instalment in its Battlefield series, confirming the multiplayer shooter will be returning to the modern era for its next outing, and that the unpopular Specialists system has been jettisoned for good in favour of more traditional classes.
That’s according to Respawn head and Battlefield boss Vince Zampella who, in conversation with IGN, teased a back-to-basics approach for the series’ next outing following 2021’s poorly received Battlefield 2042. That starts with a return to the modern era, with Zampella explaining, “If you look back to the peak or the pinnacle of Battlefield, it’s that Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4 era where everything was modern. And I think we have to get back to the core of what Battlefield is and do that amazingly well, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Beyond the setting, Zampella hints the still-unnamed next Battlefield may ditch 2042’s sprawling 128-player maps in favour of more focused matches. “Did [128 players] make it more fun?,” he posits. “Doing the number for the sake of the number doesn’t make any sense. We’re testing everything around what’s the most fun… The maps, once they get to a certain scale, become different… So we are designing something that is more akin to previous Battlefields. I’d rather have nice, dense, really nice, well-designed play spaces.”
Unsurprisingly, given the system’s eventual removal from Battlefield 2042, Specialists also won’t be returning, with EA having this time opted for a more traditional class-based system. “It didn’t work. It didn’t fit,” explains Zampella. “Specialist will not be coming back. So classes are kind of at the core of Battlefield, and we’re going back to that”.
Battlefield 2042’s launch in 2021 was, of course, plagued with issues, ranging from technical woes to questionable gameplay decisions, leading former Eurogamer editor-in-chief Martin Robison to call it “the weakest Battlefield in some time”. Players apparently agreed, and it didn’t take long for Battlefield 2042 to become one of Steam’s most negatively-reviewed games of all time. The following February, 2042 was officially declared a flop as EA boss Andrew Wilson admitted it “did not meet expectations”, and player numbers dwindled, despite the publisher’s best efforts to keep it afloat with sweeping changes to its core systems.
Zampella understandably hopes to avoid a similar fate for the next Battlefield, saying, “We want it to be good out of the gate.” And to achieve that, there’ve been major changes to the series’ development. Senior figures have departed, and EA has rethought development “from the ground up” – more recently saying it has now amassed its “largest Battlefield team in franchise history”, with EA Motive, DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect all pitching in.
Alongside today’s teases, EA has released a single bit of concept art (above) to spark imaginations. And while there’s currently no release date for the new Battlefield, it sounds like the publisher wants to get players in early. “We have a program that we’re going to announce next year around getting more community in,” Zampella explains, “because that’s kind of the core of what we have to do — get the community back on our side, get that trust back. So I think we’re in a really good place. Is it challenging? Of course, but it wouldn’t be fun if it wasn’t.”