Battlefield Aims at Live-service Model; EA Wants Players Engaged 365 Days a Year
Battlefield 2042 is supposed to usher in a new form of development for the franchise, one that is more like a service than a series of standalone games. Among other things, EA wants new installments released every two years. Free components are also being considered.
- Development towards a service that delivers fun 365 days a year;
- Mobile launches;
- Free-to-play components;
- New major release every two years.
During a presentation to investors, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson revealed that EA will be expanding the Battlefield franchise as a service rather than a series of standalone titles. The goal is to deliver BF fans a fresh challenges and experiences all the time and thus giving them no reason to stop playing.
This service will not only include traditional premium titles on PC and consoles. There are also plans for mobile launches and components that can be accessed for free- no details have been revealed in this regard, but it almost certainly involves free-to-play titles.
The new approach will kick off with Battlefield 2042, and a key element to make this possible will be the Battlefield Portal mode, which will enable us to create custom online games using assets from previous installments in the series. This gameplay variant will be developed post-launch on along with the main multiplayer mode.
It can be expected that Battlefield Portal will appear in each subsequent installment of the series, each time offering additional elements. EA has promised that we will soon learn much more about this gameplay variant. They will make the publisher's vision of the future of the brand clearer.
Moreover, Electronic Arts believes that it makes the most sense to release new installments of the series every two years. This is not a pace unfamiliar to the franchise. In the past, it happened that the next main installments were released a year or two after the release of the previous part. This year's Battlefield 2042 comes three years after Battlefield V.
The novelty for the series will not be the publishing pace, but its regularity. EA emphasizes that the priority is to provide fans with fun 365 days a year, rather than focusing on the debuts of new games.
Battlefield 2042 is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It will be released on October 22, 2021.
