EA has shared early first details for the next instalment in its Battlefield series, confirming the multiplayer shooter will be returning to the modern era for its next outing, and that the unpopular Specialists system has been jettisoned for good in favour of more traditional classes.
That’s according to Respawn head and Battlefield boss Vince Zampella who, in conversation with IGN, teased a back-to-basics approach for the series’ next outing following 2021’s poorly received Battlefield 2042. That starts with a return to the modern era, with Zampella explaining, “If you look back to the peak or the pinnacle of Battlefield, it’s that Battlefield 3… Battlefield 4 era where everything was modern. And I think we have to get back to the core of what Battlefield is and do that amazingly well, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Beyond the setting, Zampella hints the still-unnamed next Battlefield may ditch 2042’s sprawling 128-player maps in favour of more focused matches. “Did [128 players] make it more fun?,” he posits. “Doing the number for the sake of the number doesn’t make any sense. We’re testing everything around what’s the most fun… The maps, once they get to a certain scale, become different… So we are designing something that is more akin to previous Battlefields. I’d rather have nice, dense, really nice, well-designed play spaces.”