At long last, we're finally about to get our first official look at Electronic Arts' (EA) and DICE's next entry in its large-scale, combined arms multiplayer FPS franchise Battlefield. Previously assumed to be titled Battlefield 6 since Battlefield 2042 — the most-recent game released after Battlefield V — was named unconventionally, it's now been confirmed as the real title.
The announcement of such came on Tuesday morning in a short post from the official Battlefield account on X, along with the news that Battlefield 6 is dropping a reveal trailer on July 24 later this week. A link to the trailer's YouTube premiere was also provided; its scheduling specifies that the trailer will go live a few minutes shy of 8:00 a.m. PT / 11:00 a.m. ET on Thursday morning.
As for its contents, cinematic in-engine footage is quite likely, and it wouldn't be surprising to see actual in-game gameplay, either. We might even get a release date; most expect the shooter to arrive in 2026, though a late 2025 launch could happen, too.
Accompanying the post is a motion graphic of four soldiers — potentially representative of Battlefield's four iconic classes — looking over a war-torn coastal city as naval vessels loom in the background and a squadron of fight jets scream past overhead. Notably, its contrast of cool and calm colors with a bright red-orange lens flare-y explosion is trademark Battlefield, suggesting this could be Battlefield 6's official box art.
Though we've seen next to nothing of Battlefield 6 officially, its style and approach to gameplay design have pretty much been EA's worst-kept over the last several months. Tons of leaked gameplay footage from Battlefield Labs Closed Alpha testing has spilled online, showing that the new game seems to be very similar to Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 from the series' "golden age."
Like those games, Battlefield 6 appears to be set in the modern era, and not in a historical conflict or a futuristic one. Also, the Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon classes are making a return after they were controversially replaced with Specialists reminiscent of Call of Duty Operators in Battlefield 2042, with satisfying map-altering destruction also being made a priority after 2042 disappointed in this regard.
One contentious move the developers made was to let any class use any weapon with each gaining specific bonuses when equipped with their "Signature Weapon." In response to the overwhelmingly negative reception to that idea due to fears of class identity erosion, DICE announced yesterday that there will be playlists with both open and class-specific weapons in Battlefield 6's eventual Open Beta. Thank goodness.
As someone who fell in love with Battlefield during the golden years when Battlefield 3, 4, and 1 were at the height of their popularity, it makes me incredibly excited that Battlefield 6 is harkening back to what ultimately made it my favorite multiplayer shooter franchise.
Class-based gameplay with clearly defined strengths and weaknesses that promote teamwork, augmented by vehicular combined arms combat and dynamic, cinematic destruction? That's the heart and soul of the series, and it's something Battlefield 2042 lost in its unnecessary attempt to reinvent the wheel.
And yet, I still can't help but be worried about Battlefield 6 after a recent report detailed major development issues between DICE and its support studios, "extraordinary stress and long hours" of crunch, and the absurdly ambitious expectation that it will bring in over 100 million players across a single-player campaign, traditional Battlefield multiplayer, a free-to-play battle royale à la Call of Duty: Warzone, and the return of the Portal sandbox mode.
Given that Battlefield 1 — the most popular Battlefield of all time — accrued "maybe 30 million plus," that target seems impossible to hit, and I fear EA and its teams may have bit off more than they can chew in their pursuit of doing so based on the aforementioned development struggles. I sure do hope I'm wrong, though, because man, I really want Battlefield to be good again.
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