While Battlefield 2024 definitely did not get off to a good start, it eventually found its way once the game underwent major changes.
Now in 2024, the 2021 shooter is a solid Battlefield game for those who prefer its flavour of warfare over Call Of Duty’s. Three years on though, EA is looking towards what’s next, and head of Respawn and group general manager for EA Studios Organizations Vince Zampella has provided the first few official details on that in a new interview.
In an exclusive interview with IGN, ahead of EA’s Investor Day tomorrow Zampella goes through some of what players can expect out of the new Battlefield.
For starters, Zampella confirmed that the setting for the next Battlefield game will be a modern one – not a near-future setting like 2042 or a historical World War I or World War II setting – but a modern one, something to harken back to the series peak which Zampella identifies as Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.
“I mean, if you look back to the peak or the pinnacle of Battlefield, it’s that Battlefield 3…Battlefield 4 era where everything was modern. And I think we have to get back to the core of what Battlefield is and do that amazingly well, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.
But I think for me, it’s that peak of Battlefield-ness is in that Battlefield 3 and 4 days. So I think it’s nostalgic for players, for me, for the teams even. Those are kind of the heyday…although I would say 1942 also.”
Zampella also confirmed that Specialists will not be returning for this new Battlefield game, and instead the team will be sticking more towards the core of Battlefield that has been its class structure.
“So I wasn’t there for 2042. I don’t know what the rationale was, but for me, it’s like the team tried something new. You have to applaud that effort. Not everybody liked it, but you got to try things. It didn’t work. It didn’t fit. Specialist will not be coming back. So classes are kind of at the core of Battlefield, and we’re going back to that,” he said.
Beyond that though, Zampella doesn’t go into details but instead cements that EA is putting a massive effort into this new Battlefield game, with the intention to shake things up in the first-person shooter genre.
“It’s definitely betting bigger on Battlefield. It’s going in and expanding what Battlefield is. We have to have the core. The core Battlefield players know what they want. They’ve been with us forever, they’ve been amazing supporters. We need to earn their trust back and get them back on our side.
And then it’s expanding out and getting more players into the universe and seeing what we can do, so when you want a different experience, you don’t have to leave Battlefield. You can experience more things within the Battlefield universe. So we’re expanding the offerings that we’re giving.”
As far as when we’ll see this new Battlefield game? Zampella doesn’t say, but this late into 2024 we can bet we’re looking at a 2025 release.
Source – [IGN]