For the better part of the last decade, theBattlefieldseries was the popular place to go for large-scale online multiplayer in the FPS space, offering players the opportunity to shoot it out on large maps in 64-player matches. That number’s almost quaint nowadays in the age of battle royale shooters that cansupport up to 200 players per match, but if the latest from the rumor mill is to be believed, it’s going to be bumped up considerably for the upcomingBattlefield 6.
Presently, there isn’t much that’s known about EA and DICE’s next military shooter other than it’s confirmed to be in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X. Much of the discussion around it, as such, has been just speculation and rumor, with the most popular currently being thatBattlefield 6will return to a modern setting, followingBattlefield 1andBattlefield 5’s detours in the World Wars. But as far as actual gameplay information goes, that’s been nonexistent so far.
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That’s where Twitter user andfrequent source of gaming leaksTom Henderson comes in. This morning, Henderson offered tidbits of what DICE has in store forBattlefield 6and the scale of its gameplay. Starting off, he claimed that while the core multiplayer is being designed around the classic 32-vs-32 player setup, the game will be able to support a lot more than that, with maps that “have been designed with 128+ players in mind.”
Henderson wouldn’t say if this means DICE will be bringing 64-vs-64 modes toBattlefield 6as well, but did suggest that EA and DICE are considering putting that increased player count to use in some sort of battle royale, citing “increased interest” from the two due to thesuccess ofCall of Duty: Warzone.
That last part might not appeal much toBattlefieldfans, not afterBattlefield 5failed to introduce battle royale to the series with its Firestorm mode. Numerous issues, including a slow pace and a bad loot system, resulted in Firestorm being largely dismissed asone of the worst battle royale gamesout there. Of course, with battle royale being much more prominent now than whenBF5first dropped, there’s always hope that DICE has taken Firestorm’s failure to heart and is focusing more on improvingBattlefield’s battle royale experience.
On a related note, Henderson briefly touched upon the topic of free-to-play. Lately, it’s becoming more common to see paid games implement some sort of free-to-play extension on the side, such asCall of Duty: Warzoneand themultiplayer forHalo Infinite. And with EA and DICE potentially adding a battle royale mode toBattlefield 6, it led Henderson to wonder, “could EA and DICE be planning a F2PBattlefieldexperience?”
Battlefield 6is currently slated to launch in the 2022 fiscal year (October 2021-September 2022) for PS5 and Xbox Series X.
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