The Battlefield Franchise May Benefit From Doubling Down on a Bold Setting

It’s an interesting time for the Battlefield franchise. Coming off the heels of a pretty disastrous streak of Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042, the long-running military shooter series is in a difficult spot, and a lot of pressure is riding on the shoulders of its next game, a game that’s just received a sliver of new information. Very recently, EA announced that Battlefield 2042‘s seventh season would be its last, and that development was now fully ramping up on the series’ next mainline entry, with EA Motive taking the reins of its single-player campaign.

Though the news is pretty surface-level, it’s still exciting to know that a new Battlefield game is in the works, even despite the series’ reception in the last few years. But it’s not going to be a stress-free journey up to release for fans, with so much about the next Battlefield being completely unknown, including its setting. And while some recent rumors have suggested a modern-day setting could be on the cards for the next Battlefield, the series might be better off revisiting an older era.

The Next Battlefield Game Should Return to World War 1

Battlefield 1 Is Still a Huge Success

Released in August 2016, Battlefield 1 became an immediate critical hit, earning 9s across the board from the vast majority of outlets. Currently, Battlefield 1 sits at an 89 on Metacritic for its PS4 version, making it one of the highest-rated games in the entire franchise, earning the same score as Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 1942, and coming second only to 2005’s Battlefield 2. And this praise wasn’t coming just from critics.

Countless Battlefield fans poured hours into Battlefield 1 when it first released, and made their adoration of the game abundantly clear. At the time, it was extremely rare for a video game to set itself in World War 1, especially an entry in a long-running AAA franchise. But the risk paid off, and Battlefield 1‘s WW1 setting helped it to stand apart completely from its competition, with Call of Duty‘s 2016 entry being the ill-fated, future-set Infinite Warfare.

Almost a decade later, Battlefield 1 is still one of the most beloved entries in franchise history, and it’s earned quite the legacy over the last eight years. Officially, Battlefield 1 has sold over 15 million copies in its lifetime, and some sources even believe that number could be closer to 20 million at this point, though that’s unconfirmed.

After the disappointing launch of Battlefield 2042, Battlefield 1 saw a resurgence, at least on Steam, with its player-base skyrocketing to over 50,000 in November 2022, according to SteamDB. Though its player-base dropped off gradually over the next few months, Battlefield 1 has managed to maintain a very healthy active player-count, with its lowest drop of the last year and a half still seeing over 12,000 players enjoying the game. It’s clear that Battlefield 1 made a significant impact, and it might be time for the series to try and capture that again.

Another Battlefield Game Set in World War 1 Will Give Fans Exactly What They Want

While simply setting another Battlefield game in World War 1 wouldn’t be enough to by itself to convince fans to hop back on board the franchise, it would be the perfect gateway to delivering some much-requested features. For a while now, many Battlefield fans have wanted a return to the series’ immersive, historically-accurate roots, and a World War 1 setting seems like the perfect starting place to achieve that. Realistic weapon models and behavior, immersive battle-chatter, accurate sound design, destructible environments, and all the other immersive features Battlefield fans want to see return to the series would all work seamlessly in a WW1 setting, just as they did back in 2016.

Battlefield 1

Battlefield 1 takes players back to the past, pitting them on a battlefield that takes place during World War I, with weapons and soldier styles matching the era.

Released

October 21, 2016

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood, Strong Language, Violence

How Long To Beat

8 Hours

X|S Enhanced

No

File Size Xbox Series

74 GB (June 2023)