EA Confirms New Battlefield Game For 2016

EA will release a new Battlefield game in 2016.

In a recent investor call, EA spokesperson Blake Jorgensen revealed that the publisher has plans for the series next year, but didn’t provide any further detail. So while it could be that the publisher is planning to release Battlefield 5, the news could also relate to another spinoff.

“What we’ve said is that our intention over the next couple of years is to have a first-person shooter as one of the core titles,” said Jorgensen. “This year, obviously, it’s Star Wars Battlefront. Next year, it’s another Battlefield title.”

Battlefield is one of the most successful first-person shooters franchises around, with a history that stretches back to 2002. With well over 50 million players taking part in the experience as of 2012, Battlefield‘s reputation is down to a whole number of things ranging from its graphical fidelity to its more tactical-based gameplay. But its the game’s multiplayer - which sees players blowing the hell out of each other by land, sea and air - that has proven key to the series’ success, with few other online shooters able to match in terms of scale.

The last numbered release in the core franchise was Battlefield 4, developed by series stalwarts DICE and released in 2013. Despite well-publicized issues with the game’s multiplayer infrastructure and a somewhat lackluster single player campaign, Battlefield 4 managed to shift over 7 million copies worldwide, spread across PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC.

This year, Dead Space veterans Visceral Games took the franchise in a new direction with Battlefield Hardline. Hardline took a break from military themes, Visceral opting for an approach more akin to a police procedural tv show - complete with story recaps at the beginning of each chapter.

Hardline was fun, but not quite as good as fans might have been hoping. Kyle Barrows awarded Visceral’s effort a score of 6/10. “As long as you don’t go into it expecting to be blown away, Battlefield Hardline is worth playing,” Kyle wrote in his Battlefield Hardline review. “It’s not the best Battlefield game ever, but it’s enjoyable enough – and at least it avoids being the broken disaster that Battlefield 4 was at launch.”