First Look At Battlefield 6 Revealed

Summary

• Four iconic developers are coming together to form Battlefield Studios: DICE, Criterion, Motive, and Ripple Effect.
• Together, they announced a new initiative in a brief, five-minute video. Through Battlefield Labs, they hope to bring the community more directly into the development process to avoid a repeat of 2042.
• At the end of the new video, we even got a brief look at Battlefield 6 in action, with some pre-alpha gameplay footage spliced together.

EA just dropped a five-minute video introducing the future of Battlefield, now helmed by the titular Battlefield Studios. This overarching team comprises four iconic developers: DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect, who are all working together on the newest entry.

Battlefield's Next Game Will Feature A Modern Setting And Get Rid Of Specialists

It's music to our ears.

DICE is leading the charge on multiplayer, while Criterion, now a "fully-fledged partner", is focused on the single-player experience. Yes, the campaign is back, and developers describe it as being a "cinematic experience to a level that has never been done before".

Yes, the campaign is back.

But that's not all we get to see from Battlefield 6. Towards the end of the video, EA surprised us with a very brief, rapid-fire montage of pre-alpha gameplay (which is, of course, "subject to change").

This is our very first look at the game in action, showing that cinematic experience off directly. This comes four years after the launch of 2042, and already appears to be a more return-to-roots game as previous reports suggested.

EA Wants To Avoid A Battlefield 2042 Repeat

Insiders reported last month that EA wants to avoid another disastrous launch akin to Battlefield 2042, and Battlefield Labs is how it plans to do that.

This extensive, new development initiative will allow the community to test specific areas of the game pre- and post-launch, getting hands on with combat, destruction, maps, modes, new features, weapons, vehicles, and gadgets. EA hopes that bringing the community into the development process more directly will allow Battlefield to try new things, while also validating what players expect from the series.

We've seen similar initiatives in the past — pre-launch betas and PTS servers are pretty common among shooters after all — but EA stresses that this is a more in-depth enterprise that will allow the team to further fine-tune the game so that it, along with fans, can "build Battlefield together".

There's no word yet on when Battlefield Labs will begin testing, or when the new game is expected, but you can sign up right now. Although, be warned, at the time of writing there's a queue of 33,000 people, with an estimated wait time of more than an hour.

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