After an exciting beta period, Battlefield 6 developer DICE is preparing for the new shooter's full release – but it hasn't all been smooth sailing for the team, especially when taking players' expectations for older series entries' beloved maps into consideration.
Speaking to PCGamesN in a recent interview, product owner and design director at DICE, Shashank Uchil, reveals as much. Taking the addition of well-known maps, like Operation Firestorm from Battlefield 3, into account, he explains how challenging it can be to hit the nail on the head for longtime fans. "You wouldn't believe how difficult it is," admits the lead, "because [of players'] expectations."
Uchil continues, describing how fans' expectations build up – and how nostalgia plays a role, too. "People know the map, and people have certain expectations," he says. "But also there's rose-tinted glasses, like, 'this is how it used to be.' That's where [the] challenge comes in. How do we make it as destructible as every map in the package? How do we make sure the map works with the weapons, which are different from the weapons in Battlefield 3?"
He concludes: "It's much more complicated than people think." On the other hand, producer Jeremy Chubb thinks older Battlefield games built strong enough foundations for DICE to build on with maps like Operation Firestorm. "When we bring back a map like Firestorm, it still works," states Chubb. "It's still fun to play." The map being fun doesn't guarantee fans will still like it over the original or even prefer it, however.
"It's a fine line," as Chubb puts it, "because people have really particular views about what that map was. They want that experience realized. But I think that we would disappoint people a little if we weren't able to evolve it and embrace the new ideas and features that we have in this game." It's a fair observation – Battlefield is a 23-year-old franchise at this point, after all, with an established community of players.
