Battlefield 2042 season 1 start time and map details arise via datamine

Battlefield 2042 Hazard Zone — (Image credit: EA)

Battlefield 2042 season 1 may not begin until March 2022, according to new insights obtained via datamine.

EA still hasn't announced when the pre-season that began with the launch of Battlefield 2042 will conclude and the online shooter's first proper season will begin. However, data miner temporyal posted on Twitter that the Battlefield 2042 client currently has weekly missions laid out for 12 weeks of preseason.

It's possible that some were added to the game as backup in case of delays. However, if they all do play out, that will put the end of the pre-season and presumed start of Battlefield 2042 season 1 sometime around the middle of March.

The #Battlefield2042 client includes weekly missions for 12 preseason weeks.🗓️ Season 1 seems to be scheduled for March 2022 (unless they've added a few weeks as "backup").🇨🇦 "Exposure" is probably the final name for the previously datamined "Ridge" map.🎄 Happy Holidays! pic.twitter.com/FBuxapZvjlDecember 19, 2021

The data miner also included early details for a new map coming in season 1 which lines up with the previous announcement of Exposure: it looks like it will take place in the Canadian Rockies, where Russian forces are invading a joint Canadian-US research facility after a landslide revealed the secret work going on inside - naturally, Russia and the US differ on whether the base was being used to develop weapons.

Fun fact: if the datamined details prove accurate, Exposure will be the first Battlefield multiplayer map set in North America since Battlefield Hardline in 2015. If you don't count the cops-and-robbers themed spinoff (Hardline's maps aren't the sites of military battles, after all), you have to go all the way back to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in 2010 to find the last Battlefield maps set in North America.

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.