Rumor: Are There Huge Problems Behind The Scenes Developing The Next Battlefield?

Ars Technica has a new report on behind the scenes at the Battlefield reboot, which confirms and clashes with some prior rumors. Unfortunately, either way, it still doesn’t paint a pretty picture.

As you may remember, the big idea behind this reboot was that EA would pool resources around Vince Zampella, who already gave the company a taste of live service success in Apex Legends, and bring four studios together to guarantee success. Ostensibly, the lesson EA learned from Battlefield 2042 is if they brought a lot more resources together, on a bigger investment, a successful Battlefield revival could bring big returns. An earlier whistleblower who identified themselves as a former Battlefield developer claimed that the game was not turning out well because EA slowly laid off or eroded the team from the franchise’s original developer, DICE. But Ars Technica paints a different picture entirely.

EA’s big bet on Battlefield originally cost them $ 400 million in 2023, and Ars Technica’s sources told them that it has ballooned since then. They were also allegedly gunning to get 100 million players on the title. That certainly seems like a ridiculously unbelievable number, but Zampella’s Apex Legends reached that player count two years after launch. Whether this goal is realistic may depend on the specific timeframe EA set in mind, but Ars says that DICE’s developers didn’t believe it was possible.

The big problem surrounding the project seems to be the adjustment from the game being made by one studio, to a multi-studio process. This would be similar to the arrangement Activision has with Call of Duty, but making these studios learn to work with each other is particularly messy, adding that management with Byron Beede and Zampella is its own group, based in LA. The culture clash is particularly felt hard in DICE, which now finds it working as support studio to the franchise it used to own.

Another big issue was the closure of Ridgeline Games. Ars claims that Ridgeline’s implosion happened because EA pushed the studio to do too much. While former studio head Marcus Lehto was expected to build up Ridgeline, they were also assigned unreasonable work proportional to their ability. As it turned out, this was the drama that led Lehto to resign the company, and seemingly compelled EA to close the studio.

Truthfully, it still seemed like EA could overcome all these challenges, if Ars hadn’t mentioned that the team is not really hitting their development deadlines on time. EA is allowing them to move forward with some parts still unfinished, and making games this way is how we ended up with games that needed Day One Patches.  

While this report is alarming, it all does seems a little surreal because what EA has shown of their Battlefield Labs playtests does look promising. If they still appear unfinished sometimes, playtesters have not been talking about it the way they did about MindsEye. EA seems committed to release the reboot by March 2026, so we won’t have to wait that long to find out how truthful Ars’ report turns out to be.