EA apparently wants the Battlefield Franchise to follow in the footsteps of big brother Call of Duty, with multiple studios making games and turning it into an annual franchise.
Battlefield has been on a weird trajectory since Battlefield 5. After years of being a yearly or bi-yearly franchise since its inception, the series went on what could be called a hiatus with a three-year gap between it and Battlefield 2042. And now four years after 2042, Battlefield 6 is coming soon, and unlike 2042, it seems to be pretty well liked from the beta periods. And apparently, the goal is for that popularity to return the series to a more frequent schedule.
Industry analyst Michael Pachter was speaking about Battlefield 6 on his podcast Pachter Factor. During this show, Pachter claims he talked to Byron Beede (the general manager of the Battlefield franchise). "Their goal is three studios making Battlefield on a three-year basis," Pachter says, which would turn the Battlefield series into an annual franchise with different studios making each release, like Call of Duty.
But obviously you can't just conjure three studios out of nowhere, as Pachter notes "he[Bedee] said it's going to take five or six years before we get two-in-a-row. So we're not going to get there for a while." This means there's always time for plans to change based on the reception to Battlefield 6.
This was previously reported by an ex-DICE developer who goes by Rizible on BlueSky, who said that if Beede sticks to his vision we're going to get "A full priced main game with limited single player," "seasons, battlepass and live service slop," and "a free to play mode like Warzone." They add that "Wild and crazy, monetized, cosmetic content is the ultimate goal"
Fan reaction to this news hasn't been entirely positive, with a comment on Pachter's podcast saying, "Hell No, I prefer Battlefield to come out every 3 to 4 years. I want to squeeze everything out of Battlefield 6 before I move on to a new Battlefield title." While the only post about this Pachter's claims on the Battlefield subreddit has a single comment: "Pain."
Battlefield 6 multiplayer is taking inspiration from Bad Company 2, but I hope its single player campaign looks further back to the series' best story.
