Battlefield 2042 will continue to try to steer itself out of choppy waters for another few years before publisher Electronic Arts is reportedly ready to roll out the next Battlefield game in the franchise.
Last month, Battlefield insider Tom Henderson reported that a new Battlefield game has entered pre-production “to bring back the franchise” back to new heights by learning from the “valuable lessons” taught by Battlefield 2042.
It was speculated at the time that the new Battlefield game would be targeting a 2023 release at the earliest. Following the latest financial call though, where Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson stated that the publisher will “take the long view” with the Battlefield franchise in light of the disappointing launch of Battlefield 2042, Henderson now reports (via WhatIfGaming) that the next Battlefield game will release in 2024 instead.
Battlefield 2042 will be supported until then as developer DICE continues to push improvements and reworks to improve the state of the game. The developer has already highlighted its roadmap which includes reworks for maps and specialists. The former being partially prepped for select maps for the first season, while the latter is slated to roll out for select specialists by the second season.
DICE will reportedly “be reverting a lot of the changes made in Battlefield 2042” which presumably includes bringing back the traditional classes instead of specialists and dialing down on the number of players per match.
Battlefield fans have been highly critical of specialists, which Electronic Arts was apparently banking on to pave the way for a Battlefield hero shooter down the road. Those plans are said to have been scrapped after the poor response of Battlefield 2042.
In the meanwhile, Battlefield 2042 has seen some of its players return after the recent patch. The game has at least been able to stop its player numbers from continuously taking a dive since release. However, the existing number of players is still abysmally low for a mainline Battlefield installment.
