Battlefield will be a "meaningful part" of EA's future, despite Battlefield 2042 disappointments

Battlefield 2042
(Image credit: EA)

EA CEO Andrew Wilson says that he has "extraordinary confidence" in the Battlefield leadership team.

Speaking during the company's latest investor report, Wilson name-dropped the FPS series a surprising number of times given the difficult launch of its latest outing. He spoke on taking "ownership" and "building [...] for the future" of several major brands, including Battlefield, and mentioned "our ability to bring Battlefield back in an entirely new way in the future."

Later in the call, during a Q+A session, Wilson was asked about how projects attached to Battlefield IP were progressing. While he said in response that "we don't have any date announcements," he also said that having had a recent call with the series' new leadership team, he had "extraordinary confidence in that team and extraordinary confidence in the progress they're making against the future of that franchise."

More information on that project will come when it's "appropriate" to share it, but Wilson says that the series is "firmly implanted" in EA's strategy: "building games and experiences that attract and entertain massive online communities across platforms, across business models, across geographies. And we think that Battlefield is going to be a meaningful part of our future. We'll share more as time progresses."

Battlefield 2042's launch in late 2021 was a disaster; player counts plunged in the weeks after release, and while seasonal updates over the following 18 months have brought some fans back, it's certainly been a case of too little, too late. EA was unlikely to abandon the series for good, but Wilson's optimism is certainly a surprise this soon after that terrible release.

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Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.