The latest Battlefield 6 update has been a blast as I’ve lost countless hours on the Cairo Bazaar map and embraced the utter chaos of Obliteration. I truly believe that by the time season five wraps up at the end of this year, Battlefield 6 will have finally cemented itself as one of the series’ best. And yet, every time BF6 gets a major update, I find myself asking the same question: what broke this time?

Here are just a few issues I stumbled upon this time around: there’s an annoying glitch on the spawn map that means it jitters around all over the place, helicopter flares have seemingly stopped working, I get this weird fizz on my screen after using any kind of thermal scope, the red dots that were so annoying after getting a new attachment now don’t exist at all, the Breakthrough mode of Cairo Bazaar is totally unbalanced, and I’ve seen multiple IFVs fail to render in, causing a ghostly apparition to fire grenades into my team. There’s a lot wrong with the game right now.

Unfortunately, this has become the expected norm for any new Battlefield update. With every update, there are new fixes, balance changes, and new maps, but it also seems like something else is somehow broken in the process. Players have come to expect that something is going to be totally broken when they log in. That’s not a good look for the game, and it’s not healthy for its longevity.

Unfortunately, this has caused many fans to suspect that EA is using AI tools to help run Battlefield 6 as a live service. I was skeptical of how much EA was using generative AI in the development of Battlefield 6 these days, but it’s a theory that is becoming harder to ignore.

AI And EA: What It Means For Battlefield

I just want to be clear that I have no evidence that AI is directly causing the many bugs and glitches in Battlefield 6. EA has not publicly stated or declared that AI is writing Battlefield 6’s gameplay code, or designing the balance updates. However, EA has obviously made it pretty clear that AI is deeply rooted in the future of development at its internal studios.

The publisher has embraced AI, invested in AI partnerships, and repeatedly talked about integrating AI into its development process, particularly around quality testing and generative AI. It’s also important to consider the takeover of EA by the Saudi-backed Public Investment Fund.

PIF has publicly stated that AI plays a “crucial role” in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and that many of its “portfolio companies” are integrating AI. In 2025, PIF launched HUMAIN, which is an AI company built around AI infrastructure and AI applications. It's impossible to know how much of this strategy has filtered down into Battlefield 6 specifically. What we do know is that both EA and its new majority owner view AI as a major part of the future of video game development.

And this is not exclusive to EA, I imagine. It’s no groundbreaking statement that video games are costing more than ever to develop, with the CEO of Take-Two Interactive stating in an interview with Business Insider that GTA has cost well over $1 billion to produce. According to multiple reports, Battlefield 6 cost well over $400 million, which makes it one of the most expensive video games ever developed. Despite having a budget this enormous, there are still frequent bugs that just seem so blatantly obvious that it’s surprising they have been overlooked. It suggests no human was present to note their presence in the first place.

AI is primarily a cost-saving tool, so it’s not surprising that we are seeing it integrated more and more into large video game studios. It does feel like EA has been testing the waters with Battlefield 6, including plenty of AI-generated cosmetics on the store. There’s also news that Ubisoft is also testing its own set of AI tools for the upcoming Far Cry 7. We are literally being charged to eat AI slop.

Do Games Just Cost Too Much To Develop?

Maybe AI isn’t responsible specifically for Battlefield 6’s update problems, and maybe there’s actually just a simpler answer: games cost a lot of money, the update cadence for Battlefield 6 is faster than EA has managed in the past with previous titles, and as a result quality assurance and thorough bug testing gets pushed to the side.

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I’m skeptical of my own argument here, because some of these bugs just seem too obvious to send live. Aren’t we all testing the new updates in Battlefield Labs anyway? Aren’t we just the QA team? How can these bugs slip past when they are obvious to anyone who has played the game even for an hour or two?

It’s hard not to consider the implications of AI here, though. As more and more money is poured into AI-aided development, I think it’s fair to ask whether these AI tools are making games better, or if they are just ways to cut costs, make money for executives, and slowly degrade the products that we dedicate so much time to.

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Battlefield 6

FPS War & Military Action Systems 4.0/5 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 83/100 Critics Rec: 88% Released October 10, 2025 ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) Battlefield Studios Publisher(s) EA
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