EA has announced Battlefield Studios, four studios that will shape the future of Battlefield through a collaborative development process. They’ve also announced Battlefield Labs, looking to give players a big role in testing and shaping features across development.
The four studios that are under the Battlefield Studios fold are DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect. While Motive’s single-player Iron Man game remains in production, Criterion has put Need for Speed on hold for the foreseeable future, as the majority of the team will be on Battlefield.
When it comes to Battlefield, particularly after the release of Battlefield 2042 and the mixed reception that game received, taking a new approach is what we expected. That there are four studios uniting to make it happen is where there are some things to consider.
Battlefield Labs is designed to take what those studios are working on and let the community play an important role in shaping the future of the next game and series.
“We will test (almost) everything but not everything you see will be complete. To ensure that your feedback has impact, players will experience, under NDA, different pieces of an unfinished puzzle so we have time to incorporate your feedback into the final product,” EA’s announcement says. In addition to testing some of the basic pillars of the Battlefield experience, from classes to maps to strategic play, we can expect some fresh ideas for everyone to offer feedback on.
If you want to participate, you can sign up and the team will eventually start inviting a variety of players of different skill levels, from Battlefield veterans to new players and we can expect a few thousand participants for North American and European servers to start. eventually they're looking to have tens of thousands of testers around the world.
They're going to test the “pillars of play”, which are things like core combat, destruction, and then they'll let people start working on testing balance and giving feedback on combat, including weapons, vehicles and more. Conquest and Breakthrough will also be part of the test process, because they are the heart of multiplayer teamwork and competitive play.