Battlefield Labs helped developers keep "an open mind" while creating Battlefield 6 after 2042's colossal failure, but "you can't just let players design for you"

Battlefield 6 devs have spoken about how useful the Battlefield Labs system has been, but note that it's important to take all feedback with a grain of salt.

Earlier this year, before Battlefield 6 was even announced, EA and Battlefield Studios announced Battlefield Labs, which allows players to playtest in-development Battlefield content and provide feedback. Labs sign-ups are still available to players, but you're not missing too much if you're not in there because seemingly every detail about the Battlefields Labs tests seems to leak.

Speaking to Edge, the devs behind Battlefield have been praising the system. "I've been in the industry for a long time, and I've never seen this kind of methodology being utilized on such a regular basis," Rebecka Coutaz – general manager of DICE and Criterion – says. "Normally, we just do a closed alpha or an open beta, for example, and it arrives too late, so we cannot incorporate the feedback."

Ripple Effect's general manager, Christian Grass, says the most important thing about this system is to keep "an open mind," but also knowing when you're right. Ripple Effect creative director Thomas Andersson elaborated on this, saying, "You can't just let players design for you."

"You can't just let players design for you," Andersson adds. "What we are doing is, if they're struggling to understand something, or think that something is overpowered, let's look at that. 'Why do they think this is overpowered? Oh, it's because they don't understand this thing yet.'"

He also adds that some of the tools may not be available to players yet. Andersson added, "There's a lot of conviction behind these decisions. But there's always an appetite for validating them, a curiosity to track the data, take the feedback, and see how we can improve."

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