Battlefield Royale anyone? Or, at least, that’s what I would call a battle royale mode for Battlefield 5, which is apparently being prototyped by DICE for its next game in EA’s multiplayer shooter franchise.
The leaked info was shared by VentureBeat, which previously reported that DICE’s shooter sequel would take place in World War 2, and comes just one day after multiple sources stated that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 would also feature a battle royale mode when it releases later this year.
Battle royale, as popularised by PlayUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite Battle Royale, is a competitive PvP mode in which 100 players drop onto a shrinking arena in a last-man-standing fight to the death, but I’m sure you already knew that.
While it may seem like DICE is riding the coattails of other games' success with this news, the series is admittedly a pretty good fit for a battle royale mode, with its open level design, systemic gameplay, and penchant for vehicular warfare perfectly catered to the genre’s epic scale and competitively flavoured chaos.
Players are even already used to jumping from planes and parachuting into large scale maps in previous Battlefield games, so the battle royale framework moulds itself easily to DICE’s patented gameplay formula.
However, it’s worth noting that the VentureBeat report goes on to claim that the mode is still in the prototype phase over at DICE, and has not yet been greenlit as a definitive feature for Battlefield 5, which is due to release in the fall of this year.
Even if the mode does get officiated by the studio, the report suggests it wouldn’t be ready in time for the game’s launch either way.
That said, it’s hard not to imagine DICE offering battle royale as part of a DLC pack or, as VentureBeat predicts, a free update, which would make sense given that Electronic Arts is officially in damage control mode following last year’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 loot box scandal.
It’s unclear when exactly EA and DICE plan to officially reveal Battlefield 5, or whatever the sequel to Battlefield 1 is called, but it’s highly probable that we’ll know more by the time of this year’s E3 Expo, perhaps even earlier if the studio is feeling gracious.
Until then, read up on the best battle royale games that you can play right now, so long as they’re not called PlayUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
