Highlights

  • Battlefield may benefit from exploring the Cold War conflict, a period of history that Call of Duty has explored extensively.
  • A single-player Cold War narrative could draw inspiration from Battlefield: Bad Company's tight-knit team dynamic.
  • With Call of Duty rumored to be moving away from the Cold War, now is the time for Battlefield to offer its own take on the conflict.

The Battlefield franchise has long had to compete with the industry presence of Call of Duty, with both IPs often exploring the same kind of conflicts and themes despite their gameplay differences. Both franchises have found success with real-world historical and modern wars, as well as fictional and futuristic settings, but Call of Duty has explored a greater variety of them compared to Battlefield.

With Battlefield 2042 being a futuristic title, it seems time for the franchise to move back to its historic roots with its next release. One real-world conflict that Battlefield has not explored is the Cold War, something that Call of Duty has portrayed extensively throughout the popular Black Ops franchise. While it may not be feasible for a full-scale Battlefield release to adopt a Cold War setting, the conflict has a lot of potential to work well with the same framework as some of Battlefield's most ambitious past titles.

No new projects have been confirmed for the Battlefield franchise by DICE as things stand.

battlefield_dino_mode_needed_feature
Related
It's Time For Battlefield to Finally Pull The Trigger on a Much-Requested Mode

A mode Battlefield fans have wanted for years that originally began as a joke should actually become reality in the next game.

The Cold War Would be the Perfect Setting For a More Intimate Battlefield Release

The Cold War spanned a long time period, between 1947 and 1991, with its name indicating how it lacked the traditional on-the-ground combat of an ordinary conflict. Most of the Cold War was typified by global tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, who would fund proxy wars between other nations as opposed to fighting each other head-on.

The secrecy and intense government involvement during the Cold War across the globe was the perfect setting for Call of Duty's Black Ops franchise, with most of its narrative involving the CIA, Vietnam, revolutions, and off-the-books missions. Call of Duty is defined by its more linear campaigns and close-quarters multiplayer compared to the Battlefield franchise, which might be why the latter has never explored the conflict.

With that being said, Battlefield is no stranger to smaller-scale spin-off titles like 2015's Battlefield Hardline, which itself did away with the franchise's conventional depictions of warfare, focusing on policing instead. In the downtime between Battlefield 2042 and the next major game for the IP, DICE could focus on another smaller project centered around the Cold War that possesses a lot of the same gameplay themes as Hardline.

Battlefield: Bad Company Provides Great Inspiration For a Cold War Release

As well as this, it seems important that Battlefield returns to single-player experiences in its next release. Battlefield 2042's lack of a single-player campaign was one of its most controversial elements. The Black Ops franchise is often regarded as the best narrative experience that Call of Duty has ever released, and there is no reason that DICE could not achieve the same feat for Battlefield with its own Cold War experience.

A single-player story in a Cold War setting would be most in-line with the narratives of the Battlefield: Bad Company games, which focus on a tight-knit four-man fire team away from the usual grand warfare of other titles for the franchise. This same kind of dynamic would be perfect for a covert team operating across the globe during the Cold War, harking back to some fan-favorite experiences for Battlefield fans while making up for the lack of single-player content in recent years. It seems that Call of Duty is finally moving away from the Cold War, with 2024's title rumored to use a Gulf War setting, so now seems like the perfect time for Battlefield to finally portray its own take on the conflict.