During today's Q2 Fiscal 2020 earnings call, Electronic Arts revealed that there won't be a new Battlefield next year; instead, it'll be releasing a new Battlefield title on both upcoming next-gen consoles, the PS5, and the Xbox Scarlett, during the fiscal year 2022.
The latest entry in the franchise, Battlefield 5, arrived almost a year ago from EA DICE, and it'll be a while before the next entry makes its debut--which is unusual as Battlefield titles go. Over the call, EA instead stated that in terms of shooter games, it would be focusing on Respawn Entertainment's Apex Legends for the year 2020.
Based on the knowledge that the next Battlefield title could arrive during "the fiscal year 2022," that translates to the game dropping anytime between April of 2021 and the end of March in 2022. Following the previous trend of Battlefield releases, that suggests the next game will arrive in fall of 2021--although obviously that's just speculation right now.
According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, the decision to save Battlefield for the 2022 year was made because the publisher wants to give both the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett platforms a “strong two years of growth” before releasing the game. Wilson also said that the next Battlefield title would be “cutting edge,” and driven by live service offerings; EA wants the game to bring new multiplayer and social elements to the franchise.
EA confirmed the next Battlefield game will ship in Fiscal Year 2022, this is the year starting April 2021 and ending March 2022. pic.twitter.com/BiIQHFLIiB
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) October 29, 2019
In the meantime, it looks like EA DICE will mainly be supporting Battlefield 5 and Star Wars Battlefront 2 since it isn't delivering any new titles for the next couple of years. Previously, DICE had been steadily releasing titles for both of those franchises since 2013, so this is definitely a change to the expected schedule. By making Apex Legends its primary shooter for the immediate future, EA is going to work on expanding the free-to-play battle royale game onto other platforms, including a version for mobile and getting it into the very profitable esports scene. In the same call, EA talked about the likelihood of a Titanfall 3, refusing to confirm anything while chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen maintained that “We won’t forget about [Titanfall].”
All in all, EA's financial call yielded a few surprises for fans, though time will tell if the change in strategy will work out for every franchise affected. Battlefield hasn't been doing too great for the last couple of years, so maybe a break and a next-generation makeover will be just what the franchise needs.
Battlefield 5 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Business Wire