Following in the footsteps of Fortnite's success, modern online multiplayer shooters now rely on the seasonal model to provide fresh content and balancing to keep players interested. Franchises like Call of Duty and Destiny have fully embraced this style and now design their yearly content calendars around it. Battlefield 2042 is going this route as well, and a reputable leaker on Twitter outlined what players may have to look forward to after the game's release.
Battlefield 2042 is set in the near future when war breaks out between the U.S. and Russia in the wake of climate devastation, 70% of Earth's satellites falling out of the sky, and the collapse of the European Union. It will not have a single-player campaign, focusing instead entirely on the multiplayer experience. DICE will also expand on its familiar multiplayer with the large-scale co-op mode Hazard Zone and the community-driven Portal.
Insider and writer Tom Henderson shared the content outline on his personal account, outlining what DICE is planning to include with each seasonal update. The updates will allegedly include a new specialist, 2 new maps, 2 Portal maps, a Hazard Zone update, up to 8 new weapons, up to 3 new vehicles, and 100 seasonal tiers. Henderson caps it off my saying all the seasonal content will be free at release.
DICE adopting a seasonal model like this for Battlefield 2042 makes sense, as it should help the game to survive in the modern shooter landscape. The success of such a model has been seen in the MMO space with games like World of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic, which have relied on the seasonal structures for over a decade to advance the respective game's world between large expansions. The model eventually found its way to the shooter space and has been implemented successfully, as mentioned above, for several tentpole shooters with large multiplayer-focused player bases.
The only question around Henderson's alleged leak is if the amount of content in the seasonal updates is accurate and if it is all free. While most games using the seasonal model offer some free content, there is usually some kind of paid component as well. Activision, for example, requires players to pay for Call of Duty's seasonal battle pass to get access to the newest weapons, operator, and cosmetics. It would make business sense for DICE to implement a similar model for Battlefield 2042 to best monetize the game post-launch, but there is also something to be said about establishing a faithful player-base through free content updates.
Battlefield 2042 is scheduled to release on October 22, 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.