The next Battlefield game returns to newfangled settings, classes and 64 players

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EA has confirmed that the next Battlefield game will return to a newfangled setting, returning to the ever-popular themes of Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 after games that explored World War I, World War II, and the near future. They have also released the first concept art for the game.

In an interview with IGNRespawn CEO and EA Studios Organization Group CEO Vince Zampella said, “If you look back to the pinnacle or the peak of Battlefield, it’s Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4, the era where everything was modern. And I think we need to get back to the core of what Battlefield is and do it incredibly well, and then we’ll see what comes of it.”

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Battlefield 2042 had ambitious goals to push the series forward in multiple ways. The game at launch featured massive maps to support the game’s fresh maximum size of 128 players, as well as distinct characters as a hero shooter based on the series’ classic class system.

Zampella said, “128 players, did that make it more fun? Like… it doesn’t make sense to do a number for the sake of it. We test everything around what’s most fun. So like you said, maps, once they get to a certain scale, they become different. It’s a different space to play, and I think you have to design around that. So we’re designing something that’s more like the Battlefields of old.”

Both the 128 players and characters proved to be major sticking points for fans, with the map size leading to even more unfocused battles, and over the course of the game’s numerous updates, DICE has backed down to supporting 64 players per map and bringing the class system back more in line with previous games. Of course, they’ve also had to deal with countless other issues and shortcomings, such as the lack of a classic leaderboard at launch.

Considering DICE backed away from these elements back in BF2042, it stands to reason that the next Battlefield game will have these core principles woven into it from the very beginning.

One of the most critical factors for Zampella is winning back the fans. “We have to have a core,” he says. “The core Battlefield players know what they want. They’ve been with us forever, they’ve been incredible supporters. We have to win them back and get them on our side again. And then we expand and bring more players into the universe and see what we can do so that when you want a different experience, you don’t have to leave Battlefield. You can experience more things in the Battlefield universe. So we’re expanding what we offer.”

Battlefield: Bad Company 3 looks like it’s going to be a great game, right?

I can dream…

Looking back at the launch of BF 2042, I wrote in our review: “There’s a good game to be had in Battlefield 2042, and it’s a lot of fun to be had as the spectacle of Battlefield’s signature gameplay is taken to new, more expansive heights, but the whole thing is marred by several poor gameplay design changes, rushed features, and bugs that were present at launch.”

Source: IGN

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