If you’ve been keeping up with Battlefield, you’ll be aware of EA’s plans to hold invite-only playtests for the series’ next instalment as it seeks to avoid the kind of disastrous response Battlefield 2042 received. And with the first of these now underway, it’s perhaps not a huge surprise to learn players are already ignoring their NDAs and leaking early gameplay online.
Pretty much all we know about the next Battlefield so far is that it’s set in the modern day, and will bring back traditional classes and more focused maps after the unpopular changes made in Battlefield 2042. Beyond that, it’s all speculation – although one sleuth scoured the new game’s concept art and identified landmarks suggesting it could be set in Gibraltar.
There’s so much still being kept under wraps, in fact, that it’s perhaps a surprise EA is willing to start playtests before anything close to a big reveal. But here we are, with the first phase of its Battlefield Labs initiative – described as the “most ambitious community testing program in franchise history” – now live. And despite participants needing to sign an NDA before they can get involved, gameplay is already popping up in various corners of the internet.
Inevitably, EA is now embroiled in a game of whack-a-mole as far as the leaked gameplay is concerned, but plenty still lingers. Most of the footage surfaced so far consists of multiplayer sessions in Conquest mode, all playing out across the narrow, criss-crossing streets of what appears to be a North African city, and featuring plenty of environmental destruction.
Conquest mode is just one aspect of the new Battlefield game EA previously said it would be testing as its Labs initiative continues – with the publisher also confirming sessions will include a chance to playtest Breakthrough mode, the game’s more traditional class system, and “new ideas”. And with more tests to come, it’s almost inevitable more leaks will follow – which might not be such a bad thing for EA after Battlefield 2042, given the gameplay currently doing the rounds seems to be garnering a tentatively positive response.
In its latest community update, EA wrote, “Within Battlefield Labs, we’re focused on refining the best elements from past titles, modernizing them, and validating if they feel fun and rewarding, and have the right balance between intuitive control and dynamic combat… Our goal is to offer gameplay that rewards skill with precise weapon feedback and movement options for veterans, while providing an intuitive experience for new players to learn and enjoy.”
As to when the next Battlefield will get its full reveal, that’s currently unclear – although last month, EA confirmed it expects the series’ latest instalment to arrive before April next year.
