Among the numerous projects that EA has in development for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X is a new Battlefield game that is due to launch in 2021. While the game has yet to be properly unveiled, EA’s top studios boss, Laura Miele, shared some of the first details about the game recently.
During EA Play Live 2020, Miele said she looks forward to seeing developer DICE once again raise the bar, adding that the team is making the new Battlefield something that’s never been seen before.
“Our studios are taking their crazy ambitious ideas and making them real,” she said. “Every console generation DICE sets the bar for excellence in audio and visual presentation. We are creating epic battles at a scale and fidelity unlike anything you’ve experienced before.”
A work-in-progress video of the new Battlefield game showed dozens of soldiers charging through an area. Another sequence showed a character with a very real-looking face. None of these assets are strictly confirmed to be representative of what the new Battlefield game will offer, however. You can see the footage in the video above.
The soldiers show in the work-in-progress video appear to be historical models. Battlefield 6, or whatever it will be called, is rumored to take place in the modern day, according to reporter Jeff Grubb.
In addition to the new Battlefield game, EA’s Criterion studio is working on a new Need for Speed racing game, while BioWare continues to work on Dragon Age 4. One of EA’s newest studios, Motive, is making a secret new IP that Miele says is only possible with next-generation technology.
The new Battlefield game was announced in October 2019, at which time publisher Electronic Arts said the game would launch in the company’s fiscal year 2022, which runs from April 2021 to March 2022. Now we know a more specific launch period–sometime in 2021.
EA said it is releasing this new Battlefield game in 2021 instead of 2020, when the new consoles release, to take advantage of their larger install base. “Bringing out Battlefield [in 2020], where the new console base is fairly small, doesn’t really give justice to the potential of the title, and so that’s part of our driver in moving the title into fiscal 22,” EA management said.
DICE has studios in Stockholm, Sweden and in Los Angeles, California. The DICE LA studio is now being run by Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella, as part of the expanded responsibilities of his recent promotion.
2018’s Battlefield V took place in World War II, while 2016’s Battlefield 1 was set during World War I. The series hasn’t seen a modern-day release since 2015’s Battlefield Hardline.
