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The next Battlefield doesn’t have an official name, date, or even a proper trailer yet, but EA wants folks to play it and start giving feedback. The series’ new playtesting initiative is called Battlefield Labs, and its first participants will play a pre-alpha version of the next Battlefield in the coming weeks and months—signups are live now.
The Battlefield Labs reveal video ends with a nice surprise: 10 seconds of pre-alpha gameplay for the next Battlefield. This is a look at what Labs participants will be playing, a build that EA described to PC Gamer as a test of “the core pillars of Battlefield: core combat, destruction, vehicles, weapons” in familiar modes like Breakthrough and Rush, as well as “new concepts.”
We can only glean so much from 10 seconds of soldiers running down a city street, but it sure looks a lot like Battlefield 3—dusty maps, modern soldier garb, and not a single specialist in sight. The video is consistent with Battlefield boss Vince Zampella’s recent proclamation that the next Battlefield would emulate Battelfields 3 and 4 as the “pinnacle of the series.”
That destruction looks pretty nice too. There’s a physical, crumbly quality to the RPG explosion that would represent a step up for DICE if it ends up looking that good. The current leaders in impressive destruction tech in a multiplayer setting is undeniably the ex-DICE veterans making The Finals.
EA is also introducing a new brand, Battlefield Studios, representing the four studios working on the series: DICE, EA Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect. The mega-publisher is taking a very Call of Duty-like approach to future Battlefield development, with each studio focusing on different modes or support functions—DICE is completely focused on multiplayer and core systems, Criterion is leading the singleplayer campaign, Motive is contributing multiplayer maps and singleplayer missions, and Ripple Effect is making an unspecified “new experience” (taking bets on this one, my money’s on some sort of battle royale or persistent open world mode).
Unlike Call of Duty, EA’s studios aren’t exclusively relegated to Battlefield support status. EA clarified to PC Gamer that Criterion will continue to work on the Need for Speed franchise and that Motive will continue its work on an Iron Man game.
As promising as a back-to-basics Battlefield sounds, this is a lot more pomp and circumstance than an announcement of playtests really calls for. It’s clear EA wants us to get very excited about the future of Battlefield, but if you ask me, the best thing for a series with a damaged reputation is to show, not tell. Unfortunately, the Battlefield Labs playstests won’t be for show: similar to EA’s Skate playstests, participants will be under strict NDA.
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Kurt Indovina
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