Gaming

Battlefield 6 CEO update is what everyone wants to hear - but haven't we been here before?

Battlefield 6 will debut earlier than the official reveal
Bang Showbiz - Gaming / VideoElephant

So far, there have been some incredibly positive noises from EA, and indeed the Battlefield community itself, about Battlefield 6 and the appetite for a good Battlefield title is bigger than ever.

The reveal trailer for it went down extremely well, smashing a Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 YouTube milestone in an hour of it being posted.

"We've spent a lot of time and a lot of energy ensuring that this Battlefield is the Battlefield that the community expects and then some," Electronic Arts (EA) Andrew Wilson said during a recent earnings call.

"We believe that the game we've built and all the modes around it are in line with fan expectations around the world, both existing Battlefield fans and new to the franchise fans.

"We've been investing more behind this Battlefield than any Battlefield product before it," he added, ahead of the "most ambitious [multiplayer] reveal yet" (taking place on 31 July).

Content creators have been flying into LA to check the game out themselves and will soon be streaming gameplay of it.

Extensive gameplay leaks have looked encouraging and it seems as though EA has truly listened to its community with Battlefield Labs, where gamers from all over the world have been able to try and test the game out across different platforms and give feedback, being a resounding success.

But haven't we been here before and ended up with quite the disappointment in Battlefield 2042?

 

The reception to the last Battlefield game that released in 2021 was lukewarm at best. Although there were some performance issues and bugs (most notably at launch with some fixes being implemented following that), it was primarily because it moved away from some of the core elements that make a Battlefield game.

Those elements include feeling like an actual soldier in the middle of a war instead of a bona fide hero, large scale destruction, hugely engaging big maps, great gunplay, meaningful classes - the list goes on.

It felt like Battlefield 2042, and arguably Battlefield 5 to an extent, veered away from some of those traditional elements. Focusing on the former, the maps just didn't feel as engaging and specialists lost their sense of identity compared to choosing a class.

There arguably hasn't been a top, top Battlefield game since Battlefield 4 released in 2013. And that's 12 years ago now.

Despite the struggles of Battlefield 2042, EA continued to deliver consistent updates for it. Although it may not have been as well received or popular as other Battlefield titles, EA has always known it has something special with the series and has kept it alive.

Wilson said in the recent earnings call that EA is "all in" as a company on Battlefield 6. As mentioned, it knows there's huge potential among such a dedicated fanbase, especially with its main rival in Call of Duty moving towards providing players with features such as Beavis and Butt-Head skins and feeling more arcade-like than ever before.

Players have been crying out for a top tier Battlefield game for too long, and a more immersive, realistic first-person multiplayer warfare shooter would likely go down incredibly well because of the increasing shift away from this among newer mainstream releases in recent years.

If EA nails Battlefield 6, it's going to be absolutely huge. But we've been here before and been let down. So let's see what the game is really like before passing any judgement.

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