Despite only being officially announced very recently, Battlefield 6 — an upcoming new entry in Electronic Arts and DICE's long-running large-scale multiplayer FPS franchise — has rapidly become one of 2025's most highly anticipated releases, and has strong potential to be one of the biggest games of the year.
Following months of closed-doors alpha testing in Battlefield Labs, it was shown off publicly with an explosive multiplayer reveal that received high praise from fans, media, and content creators alike. An extremely popular Open Beta that ran during two weekends in August soon followed, generating further hype and even beating Call of Duty's player count record on Steam.
Though the beta is now over, DICE assured fans that further Battlefield Labs playtests will come before Battlefield 6's launch on October 10 so that tweaks made in response to feedback from the beta can be tested. And now, in follow-up to that pledge, the studio has shared what players can look forward to in the upcoming sessions — and also announced that sign-ups for Battlefield Labs are open once again.
You can register for Battlefield Labs playtests here; note that if you've already signed up for Battlefield Labs in the past or have done so and have participated in past play sessions, you don't need to do so again. Once you have, keep an eye on your email address to see if you've been selected for any playtesting.
In terms of what to expect from upcoming Battlefield Labs sessions, the developers have noted in a new blog post that testing out player-hosted servers and the Battlefield Portal server browser will be a priority. "The ease of setting up player-owned servers via predefined shortcodes, altering descriptions, selecting tags, and joining those experiences" is set to be a core focus.
You'll be able to join player-owned servers with specific settings by searching with said shortcodes, or by utilizing Battlefield 6's server browser. Built for Portal — Battlefield 6's tool for creating and setting up custom, non-official multiplayer matches — the browser will let you search for community servers and filter them by modes, maps, region, and more.
DICE notes that the systems in place for community-run servers and the server browser "should be treated as work in progress," and that "the scope of the Server Browser is intentionally limited so that we can focus on stability and core usability" for the time being.
As for the gameplay content itself, the playtests will be centered around "improvements to weapons, large-scale vehicular combat, gadget balancing, and more," with a particular focus on keeping the gameplay balanced across a variety of different map sizes.
To that end, since the Battlefield 6 Open Beta's maps were overall more confined with lots of tight chokepoints and an emphasis on infantry play, Battlefield Labs will feature larger, more open stages where a wide range of vehicles play a more important role. These include both the remake of Battlefield 3's Operation Firestorm and the map Mirak Valley (a teaser image of which is shown below).
The developer's ultimate objective is "to validate gameplay balance on these new locations and compare it against previously tested maps," which will then help inform any changes made before launch.
Overall, all of this sounds great, and I'm glad that DICE is methodically testing Battlefield 6's gameplay across all of its different kinds of maps before moving forward with significant changes. It's good to see player-owned servers and the Portal server browsing getting some evaluation, too, though this Portal-only solution is frustrating many that want a full server browser for official servers.
Notably, the studio has put out a reminder that things tested in Battlefield Labs can "often be in various stages of production, including items in alpha state, which may result in less polished or stable builds during gameplay." Because of this, the playtests may not be quite as stable as the Open Beta was, so if you sign up and get selected, keep that in mind.
Stable or not, I'd just be happy with getting my hands back on Battlefield 6 after falling in love with its impeccable audio/visual presentation, extremely impressive destruction systems, and its modernized elevation of classic Battlefield elements like classes and class-specific gadgets. I signed up for Battlefield Labs the second I saw registrations were open again, and you should, too.
Battlefield 6 is slated to release on October 10 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam, the EA app, Epic Games), and PS5, with its Standard Edition going for $69.99. Though some feared we'd see it sold for $80, EA has gone on record vowing to avoid that price point for now.
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