A new report has claimed that the next entry into the Battlefield franchise will launch alongside a free-to-play Battle Royale mode. Battlefield already has its own Battle Royale in the form of Firestorm, but that required players to own the base game, limiting the potential player base in an already crowded market.

It's been a rough few years for the Battlefield franchise. The launch of Battlefield 2042 in late 2021 did not go as expected for DICE, with the studio facing plenty of backlash for what many felt was one of the worst entries into the series in a long time. To the developer's credit, DICE has continued to update Battlefield 2042 with new content and fixes, rather than leaving it to die and moving on to the next project. Nowadays, the game is in a much better state, and hopefully, the next attempt will be better out of the gates after this experience.

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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.

In a report from Insider Gaming, Tom Henderson writes that the next Battlefield title will come bundled with a free-to-play Battle Royale mode, with a setting "somewhere around 2025-2030." According to Henderson, the mode is being handled by Ripple Effect (formerly known as DICE LA), and will not require purchasing the base game to play. This should ensure the game has a fighting chance to find an audience in the Battle Royale market. Henderson's report also gives insight into the potential release date of the next title, with the game having a target release date of October. However, this could still slip into next year, with some believing that Battlefield should skip a 2024 release.

Will the Next Battlefield Have A Battle Royale Mode?

There's no doubt that on the surface, Battlefield and the Battle Royale genre seem like a perfect pairing. Large-scale action, vehicular combat, and plenty of players - it should be a good match. But with the likes of Apex Legends releasing in 2019, and the first version of Call of Duty: Warzone coming out back in 2020, it'll be interesting to see if Battlefield has missed the boat on this one. Of the best Battle Royale games, most players already have their favorite, and it would likely take something spectacular to bring them on board for the long haul. While Firestorm exists for Battlefield 5, that required ownership of the game, so a new Battlefield battle royale being free-to-play could prove to be a difference-maker.

It's been a busy couple of days for the future direction of the Battlefield franchise. A few days back, one of the studios involved in the series going forward, Ridgeline Games, lost its studio co-founder for future Battlefield games. With Ridgeline Games being focused on single-player Battlefield experiences, it's unlikely to affect the Battle Royale news, but it may cause some brief internal chaos. If a free-to-play Battlefield Battle Royale is in the works, hopefully, it isn't too long before EA is ready to talk about it.

Battlefield

EA's Battlefield franchise is a series of first-person shooter games. The games have predominantly been set in the modern day, though there have also been titles set in World War 1, World War 2, and in the near future.

The Battlefield franchise is often compared to Call of Duty, with both franchises offering single-player campaigns and online multiplayer.