IGN released their latest interview with CEO of Respawn Entertainment Vince Zempella. Zempella says a lot of things about returning Battlefield to its “roots” by bringing the setting of the next Battlefield game back to a modern era, where 2042, as the name suggests, was futuristic.
The CEO also touched on aspects of game design such as smaller maps that support up to 64 players, the specialist system, and a return to the class system for multiplayer. We could run through the quotes, but honestly there isn’t much there to be taken that’s actually useful information besides: “Next Battlefield Modern Era.”
The real talking point here is that Respawn Entertainment, who is beholden to EA, has been allotted a list of kosher details to release to the public regarding their new Battlefield title that extend as far as “back to basics.”
While the earlier Battlefield titles are a good time, returning to what made them good in their day is not how a series can remain respected. As FIFA (Now FC2025+, also owned by EA) has taught us, remaining mostly the same with annual releases can keep a game competitive in terms of profitability but cannot keep a game’s expected quality.
Right around the release of the Bad Company games, the novelty of Battlefield’s design exploded into the general audience’s field of view at just the right time, when computer hardware was able to reliably produce the cinematic moments associated with the games’ environmental destruction and semi-realistic approach to the competitive multiplayer FPS market.
While the computer hardware has only gotten better since then, the novelty of Battlefield games has not been replicated in a different form. Returning to basics, while good for long-term financial sustainability that degrades the good name of Battlefield, is not going to keep the games’ nor the developer’s name intact.
