Highlights

  • Post-launch support for Battlefield 2042 will end after Season 7, leaving fans eager for the next entry in the franchise.
  • A realism mode in the upcoming release could cater to players seeking a more strategic and immersive gameplay experience.
  • Battlefield could differentiate itself from Call of Duty by offering both traditional arcade gameplay and a realism mode for variety.

The prospect of a new Battlefield release is finally on the horizon, with DICE recently confirming that post-launch support for Battlefield 2042 will officially cease after the end of Season 7. While nothing is currently confirmed about the potential setting, modes, and core mechanics of the next entry to the franchise, it would make sense for DICE to capture the attention of fans by offering some brand-new experiences.

Battlefield has always had a level of scale and immersion that sets it apart from its major competitors like Call of Duty, and this is something that the IP could easily lean into with its next release. The Battlefield community has been hard at work with mods and sub-communities dedicated to more realistic gameplay, and this perfectly tees up the next Battlefield release to include its own realism playlist, giving much-needed variety to the next steps of the franchise.

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Dedicated Realism Playlists Could Become a Staple of Battlefield Moving Forward

Regardless of the early controversies surrounding Battlefield 2042, the title was quite ambitious in terms of the new experiences it offered fans of the franchise. To compensate for things like a lack of a single-player campaign, 2042 introduced new modes like Portal, which allowed players to mix and match assets from several Battlefield releases to create time-bending custom multiplayer experiences.

While Portal sadly did not live up to the expectations that surrounded the mode, it showed a desire for innovation on DICE's part that should be extended to the next Battlefield release. Portal gave much more depth and variety to the core experience of Battlefield 2042, and a realism mode for the next release could have a similar impact.

The Battlefield community has already voiced how conducive the games are to more realism-focused gameplay, with the high-profile Reality Mod for Battlefield 3 showing a clear desire for this kind of approach. The Reality Mod turns Battlefield 3 into more of a mil-sim, with a bare-bones HUD, faster time to kill, and an increased focus on teamwork and voice communication. The popularity of other mil-sims like Hell Let Loose and Six Days in Fallujah shows that the market for these experiences is larger than ever before, and Battlefield could easily capitalize on this.

Battlefield Could Provide the Best of Both Worlds with a Realism Mode

A realism mode should be offered alongside the traditional gameplay of the next Battlefield, being a perfect fit for players who want more strategic and immersive engagements. Battlefield would be leaning into one of its largest strengths in this way and could play against one of the largest current weaknesses of Call of Duty. In recent years, CoD has faced a lot of flak due to the increasingly zany nature of its multiplayer, losing its gritty roots in favor of more weird and wonderful operators, weapon skins, and finishing moves.

With a full realism mode, the next Battlefield would make a strong statement against the changing identity of Call of Duty, offering tense and immersive gameplay that is becoming increasingly rare in standard CoD multiplayer. Of course, the traditional Battlefield experience should still be available for fans, with smaller-scale maps providing the same fast-paced arcade gameplay that Call of Duty is known for.

In this way, the next Battlefield release could appeal to all walks of the FPS experience, allowing fans to experience the same maps and modes in wildly different contexts. With how ambitious parts of Battlefield 2042 were, it only seems right that the next franchise release takes things a step further with a focus on optional realism.