Summary
- EA announced Battlefield Labs, a new testing program for the next Battlefield game.
- Battlefield Labs sign-ups are already open, but the registration portal is completely overloaded with traffic.
- The Battlefield Labs site describes the current version of the next Battlefield game as a “pre-alpha” build, suggesting it won’t hit the market before 2026 at the earliest.
Electronic Arts announced Battlefield Labs, a new testing program for fans to try the next entry in the series and give feedback on their experiences. In doing so, the community will get more chances to shape the development of the next Battlefield game than with any prior installment in the long-running franchise.
The last several Battlefield games launched with a myriad of technical issues that hurt their overall reputations, even though many of their problems were eventually fixed. In September 2024, EA confirmed that the next Battlefield game will get a community testing program meant to ensure its launch goes more smoothly compared to its immediate predecessors.
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Five months later, the publisher officially revealed its testing initiative on February 3. Called Battlefield Labs, the program will provide opportunities for fans to try out most aspects of Battlefield 6—or whatever the next entry in the franchise will be called—and share their feedback with the developers. “We will test (almost) everything but not everything you see will be complete,” EA said. Battlefield Labs registrations are now open, but the website is overloaded with traffic as of this writing, circa noon (ET) on February 3. The program will initially only accept a few thousand participants in North America and Europe, but will eventually expand to more territories and tens of thousands of testers.
Battlefield Labs Testers Will Need to Sign an NDA
The Battlefield Labs registration website uses cookies to store visitor IDs, so it’s possible to close it without losing one’s place in line. After getting in, each fan will have 15 minutes to finish signing up. EA confirmed that all testers will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement before getting to participate in the program. Battlefield 6‘s extensive playtest will begin with core gameplay mechanics—combat and destruction—before transitioning to weapon, vehicle, and gadget balancing. From there, the developers plan to refocus on testing specific maps and gameplay modes, among other aspects of the upcoming shooter.
We will test (almost) everything but not everything you see will be complete.
Exactly how long all of this will take is unclear, and given how unpredictable game development can be, it’s possible that not even EA has a fixed testing timeline yet. The primary goal of Battlefield Labs is to provide developers with enough user feedback to catch any major issues ahead of launch, thus ensuring that the next game doesn’t repeat Battlefield 2042‘s mistakes. Additionally, DICE and other studios working on the upcoming title are hoping to use Labs to test new gameplay ideas, which aren’t yet guaranteed to be in the final product.
The initial game version that will be tested via Battlefield Labs has been officially described as a “pre-alpha” build. This wording is a fairly strong indication that there’s still a lot of work to be done on Battlefield 6, making it unlikely that the game will launch before 2026.
