EA has shown off a glimpse of its next Battlefield game, as it begins what it describes as its “most ambitious community testing program in franchise history” – an initiative known as Battlefield Labs.
Fans can sign up now, with the first testing phase beginning “in the coming weeks”. The launch of Battlefield Labs comes, EA says, as its work enters “a critical phase in development that will benefit from collaboration with the community like never before”.
Anyone who signs up will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to test classic modes such as Conquest and Breakthrough, the game’s returning class system, as well as “new ideas”. (I wonder if that includes the mode that developer Ripple Effect is working on, which some suspect to be a battle royale?)
The next Battlefield game is being developed by a huge group spread across four major EA teams, now working under the umbrella name of Battlefield Studios. As previously announced, this includes franchise creator DICE, splinter studio Ripple Effect, Star Wars Squadrons and Dead Space Remake maker Motive, and Criterion, the veteran UK studio behind Burnout and Need for Speed.
It won’t, of course, include Ridgeline Games – the studio previously led by ex-Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto that had been working on a narrative-led Battlefield campaign – which was shut down a year ago. Work on the mode is now expected to be completed by Criterion.
Currently, Motive is the only developer within Battlefield Studios known to be still working on another project (its under-wraps Iron Man game, which seems far-off).
As Eurogamer reported today, all work on Criterion’s Need for Speed franchise is meanwhile on pause – though there’s a commitment that the franchise will continue at some point in the future.
All eyes are on EA to bring back Battlefield as strongly as possible, after the poorly-received Battlefield 2042 failed its mission to do the same.
EA previously said its new Battlefield game would be set in the modern day, with a return to its traditional classes and more focused maps.
There’s no detail today on exactly when the next Battlefield game will actually arrive. EA will likely be looking to see how well Battlefield Labs is going first, as well as how the rest of 2025’s video game release schedule shapes up.
Last month, EA says EA Sports FC 25 and Dragon Age: The Veilguard “underperformed”, as it lowered its financial forecast for the year.
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