Battlefield 2042 will presumably receive a battle royale mode somewhere down the road and which publisher Electronic Arts (EA) might have just hinted.
During an earnings call earlier today for the first quarter of the 2022 financial year, CEO Andrew Wilson stated that Battlefield 2042 has been designed to “drive deep long-term engagement” through its live service model.
The suggestion being that Battlefield 2042 will be supported and kept fresh with new content by developer DICE for many years to come and hence, there will be no need for another Battlefield game anytime soon.
“I think you should think about Battlefield as a service – what we are doing for the launch of this game is really revolutionizing and reinventing what all our epic scale warfare is in the context of gameplay,” said Wilson.
Wilson further added that EA intends to reach out to other platforms such as mobile devices and explore new areas of engagement such as free-to-play for increased growth. Battlefield Mobile for starters has been slated to launch in the first half of 2022. Battlefield 2042 on other other hand will have some sort of free to play elements which might possibly be the anticipated battle royale mode.
“You should understand that this really forms the foundation for what we believe the future of a live service around Battlefield is, which over time will include a mobile launch, will include some free to enter components and really change the nature of what happens from launch to launch.”
Battlefield 2042 will launch with three multiplayer modes, none of which is the traditional battle royale experience. DICE has already noted that there is no battle royale mode currently in the works, at least not “within the launch scope,” but has been rumored to be releasing one somewhere in the near future.
Call of Duty: Warzone has already proven how a free-to-play battle royale game can do wonders. There hence stands a large likelihood of Battlefield 2042 doing something similar as well. The free-to-play mode hinted by Wilson has to be the battle royale mode, which EA will be opening its doors to once it has finished up with the base launch sales.
Battlefield 2042 will support 128 players in some of the largest multiplayer maps ever made for the franchise, but only on the new consoles and PC. The game will feature both free and premium seasonal battle passes where DICE has assured that the premium ones will mostly be for cosmetics.
Battlefield 2042 will officially launch for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and PC on October 22, 2021.
