What you need to know
- Electronic Arts developer DICE is currently working on the next Battlefield game.
- During Electronic Arts’ Investor Day 2024 presentation, the company confirmed that Criterion, Motive, and Ripple Effect would be assisting with the game’s development.
- The next Battefield will return to the modern era, the same setting for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.
The next big Electronic Arts (EA) shooter will again be a joint effort.
Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield, explained during EA’s Investor Day 2024 presentation that DICE is “leading the charge” on multiplayer. Meanwhile, Criterion Games — best known for the Burnout and Need for Speed franchises, but having experience assisting DICE on Battlefront and Battlefield — is providing support work across single-player and multiplayer.
Dead Space remake developer Motive Studio — currently working on an Iron Man game — is working on the next Battlefield’s single-player. Finally, the team at Ripple Effect (formerly known as DICE LA) is working on a completely new mode.
Beede explains that the teams have been playing the next Battlefield for over a year, with internal playtests also bringing in outside players. This Battlefield game is set in the modern era, hearkening back to the style of games like Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.
The most recent game in the series, Battlefield 2042, was also a joint venture, with DICE collaborating with Criterion Games, Ripple Effect, and EA Gothenburg in order to bring the project together.
🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃
Electronic Arts recently canceled multiple projects
As investment stacks up on the next Battlefield, EA is coming off a swathe of canceled projects and shuttered studios.
In 2023, EA shuttered developer Industrial Toys, canceling the team’s upcoming Battlefield Mobile project. Hundreds of employees were laid off later in the year, including 50 at BioWare.
Earlier in 2024, EA laid off 670 workers across the company, canceling a first-person Star Wars shooter that was in development at Respawn Entertainment. EA also closed Ridgeline Games, a studio that was originally founded in 2022 to work on single-player, narrative-driven adventures in the Battlefield universe.
EA is betting big on a handful of upcoming projects, including BioWare’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, which is slated to arrive in time for Halloween on Oct. 30, 2024. Respawn Entertainment is also working a third game to follow Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and close out a trilogy.
