The direct competition between the Battlefield and Call of Duty franchises is one of the most storied and longstanding in the gaming industry, with both massively popular IPs catering to different sides of the first-person shooter community. While the relentless annual release schedule of Call of Duty has made it more difficult for Battlefield to compete in recent years, 2025 is set to be quite unique in that it will reportedly see the launch of a Battlefield and CoD title, being the first time this has happened since 2021’s Battlefield 2042 and CoD: Vanguard.
Some early details are already surfacing regarding this year’s Battlefield release, including leaked gameplay footage of its thorough playtesting, with a lot of positive sentiment already surrounding the project – a clear difference from the many criticisms that Battlefield 2042 faced throughout its life cycle. With this coming in contrast to the potentially risky route that Call of Duty‘s 2025 release is reportedly taking, a huge opportunity for the Battlefield franchise is imminent, and the upcoming game will need to time its big reveal perfectly to maximize its chances of once again directly competing with the industry giant that is CoD.
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A Wise Reveal Date Could Be the Perfect Set Up For the Next Battlefield Game
The playtesting for the upcoming Battlefield project is the most rigorous that the franchise has ever seen, with DICE launching the Battlefield Labs “community development collaboration” to put fans at the center of the title’s development and creative direction. This seems to be a logical move following the lingering negative reputation that Battlefield 2042 brought to the franchise, especially around the time of its launch, with DICE seemingly taking fan feedback to heart more than ever before with its next project.
The Battlefield Labs testing is being carried out in stages, with future playtesting expanding to more regions and eventually involving tens of thousands of early players.
It is confirmed that the next Battlefield will tone things back to a modern setting, with its return to things like 64-player matches and more compact maps already drawing huge comparisons between the title and the likes of Battlefield 3 and 4. This has amassed a lot of early goodwill for the project, especially among long-term fans of the franchise, and the timing of the game’s full announcement needs to maximize this early positive attention as much as possible.
2025 is set to be a strange year for Call of Duty, with many reports suggesting that this year’s CoD release is set to be another Black Ops release. Rumored to be a direct sequel to 2012’s Black Ops 2, this project would run the risk of repeating the same backlash that 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 received as the second of two back-to-back Modern Warfare releases, with rumors already suggesting that 2025’s CoD may repeat the same remastered multiplayer map catalog that only added to the criticisms of MW3. – albeit with some new maps mixed in.
A Well-Timed Battlefield Reveal Has a Real Chance of Taking Steam Away From Call of Duty’s 2025 Project
While a continuation of Black Ops 2‘s story could be a fascinating prospect, the supposedly limited amount of fresh content for the game’s multiplayer could put Call of Duty in a relative weak spot in 2025, making the excitement around the next Battlefield all the more valuable for the EA franchise. The Black Ops 6 era of CoD recently received quite a boost with the hotly anticipated re-introduction of Verdansk to Warzone, and the next Battlefield should bide its time and wait for this hype to die down before fully introducing itself to the FPS scene.
With CoD reveals usually starting around April or May, Battlefield may be wise to wait until 2025’s CoD release starts its own promotional run before revealing itself, allowing fans of the FPS genre to become fully aware of what this year’s Call of Duty offerings are and allowing for a direct comparison to be made with what Battlefield has in store. A well-timed reveal of the next Battlefield, after the initial interest in this year’s CoD reveal dies down, could be invaluable for DICE, putting the ball firmly in Battlefield‘s court for what is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing showdowns that the two massive franchises have ever had.
