EA is set to premiere a free-to-play battle royale Battlefield.
As reported by Insider Gaming, the mode is being headed by Byron Beede, who had worked as lead for Call of Duty’s live service component before. While it’s easy to dismiss this move as Battlefield catching up late to Call of Duty, they have already been experimenting with this already. Battlefield 2042 has Hazard Zone, and Battlefield V had Battle Royale Firestorm, both battle royale modes that were part of the full game and not free-to-play.
What is even more interesting is the studio rumored to be working on this mode. Ripple Effect is not a familiar name, but you are more likely to know their previous names: Digital Illusions CE Los Angeles, Danger Close Games, EA Los Angeles, and originally, Dreamworks Interactive.
Yes, as surprising as this will sound to gamers, the studio set to work on Battlefield’s battle royale mode is the same studio that made the groundbreaking Medal of Honor, the inspiration for the original Call of Duty. For the older gamers who may not remember it by name, Medal of Honor is the game where some scenes were copied from the film Saving Private Ryan, and that was perfectly fine, because Spielberg was part owner of their parent company.
Now, we won’t go through Ripple Effect’s story here, but obviously their Medal of Honor glory days, including the attempted reboot, are long behind them. The studio has most recently been working on the Battlefield franchise, so it’s not like they were assigned to this out of the blue.
Insider Gaming claims that there are two modes currently in the works for the battle royale Battlefield. There is the core battle royale itself, and Gauntlet, which will make teams compete to meet a set list of objectives. The lowest scoring team in Gauntlet gets kicked out as each objective is met.
Lastly, Insider Gaming claims that the mode will be launched with the next Battlefield game after Battlefield 2042. Insider Gaming believes that will be in October 2025.
While Sony themselves claimed that Battlefield is far from catching up to Call of Duty, EA still has an opportunity with Sony now that Call of Duty was acquired by Microsoft. If EA can make Battlefield a compelling replacement for Call of Duty in the eyes of PlayStation fans, they could make their way in replacing that spot that title held for Sony. Even if they’re not as popular as Call of Duty, if the money is there, Sony will be interested. It all depends on how well they execute on this next game, which now seems to have a free-to-play battle royale too.
