Electronic Arts and developer Dice haven’t even officially announcedBattlefield V— thealleged next titlethat will return the series to World War II — but more details on the multiplayer shooter are beginning to take shape. If a new report is correct, the game could feature a battle royale mode not unlikeFortniteorPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
According toGamesBeat, Dice is currently testing out how a battle royale mode would work inBattlefield V, but the feature wouldn’t be ready for launch day if it does end up being included in the game. Instead, it would likely be added as a free update. Dice has added modes as free updates to its games in the past, and just recently revealed the limited-time “Ewok Hunt” mode for its other shooter,Star Wars: Battlefront II.
We’ve seen battle royale mechanics added into several other games, includingFortnite, which originally began as a player-versus-environment game. Hi-Rez Studios somewhat shamelessly added a “Battlegrounds” mode to its hero shooterPaladins,and Cliff Bleszinski’s Boss Key Productions recently jumped into the fray withRadical Heights, a game that was rushed out in “X-TREME early access.”
More importantly, however,Call of Duty: Black Ops 4is reportedly including a battle royale mode. The mode appears to be coming to the gamein place of a traditional campaign mode. For the Battlefield series, such a move would be particularly disappointing, asBattlefield 1struck a nice balance between action and authenticity in its campaign mode. It followed several disappointing campaigns with lackluster stories, including the spinoff titleBattlefield Hardline.
Battlefield Vcould be one of a couple shooters announced by Electronic Arts during its EA Play event in June, though the other game is meant for a different audience. Early in March, an Amazon listing for a comic book appeared to reveal the existence ofPlants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 3. The previous game in the kid-friendly multiplayer shooter series released in 2016, making it reasonable for a third to be nearing completion. A separate Plants vs. Zombies game was reportedly canceled at EA Vancouver last year, with the studio instead shifting its focus to the development of aStar Wars action game.
