Battlefield’s community approach could be its secret weapon against CoD

The Battlefield franchise is back and ready to move into the future with a new entry, and it’s doing so with the help of fans everywhere.

Thanks to Battlefield Labs, a new play-test initiative for the franchise, the development of the game will include players in the process throughout 2025 towards the game’s scheduled launch at the end of the year. You can think of it as a bit of an early-access period, with focused tests aimed at honing in on improvements or changes for specific facets of the game.

And as a Call of Duty player and fan, I am incredibly jealous.

This sort of community-focused feedback and development would be greatly helpful in making a CoD title more successful and enjoyable, especially when it comes to things that long-time fans of the game will be able to feel out and test on a large-scale level.

Made by the players, for the players?

Yearly CoD titles always have a beta test that lasts for about two weekends a month or two ahead of the game’s fall release, but this new initiative for Battlefield is way bigger than that. As Battlefield Studios (a combination of DICE, Criterion, Motive, and Ripple Effect) mentioned in the new video detailing Labs, Battlefield has “done similar [to] this in the past but this is another level.” CoD does it too, albeit with smaller playtests not open to public applications, and with esports competitors as well.

I think (and apparently, so too to the devs) that allowing players into the process as early as February for an assumed release some time in October or November is going to be crucial. Getting player feedback on everything—including maps, weapons, gameplay, and crucial bugs and glitches found while playing—could help the new Battlefield launch to a smooth beginning once everyone logs in on launch day.

Just imagine if CoD didn’t have to spend so much time fixing as many issues or complaints after launch. Take Black Ops 6’s season two for Warzone, for example. The battle royale mode for CoD has been so hampered by bugs and cheaters that developer Raven Software had to cut back on actual content and spend the season’s update fixing problems instead, and that’s rough for a series that’s been a live-service title for so long.

The CoD cycle is never-ending

Activision would never allow CoD to have this sort of community-sourced development help by way of its community simply because CoD has a strict schedule. Every single year, a new CoD has to come out, worked on by a different main studio with several other studios pitching in on a variety of aspects.

Battlefield is not restricted by this. The last title in the series, Battlefield 2042, launched in 2021 to mixed reviews. It added several post-release seasonal expansions in the years following, but development on the next game has been happening for years now.

With years of development time, DICE and Battlefield Studios are allowed the flexibility to get gamers in on the process of shaping how the next game feels, plays, and sounds. And that’s just so valuable. But apparently not valuable enough for shareholders.

Battle-royale-field?

As Battlefield has seemingly taken a page out of CoD’s book by teaming up multiple studios under one umbrella to work on the franchise, it should also look into a legitimate battle royale contender.

Even if the previous Battlefield BR attempt in Firestorm did not go so well, a live-service multiplayer BR to compete with Warzone, Fortnite, and others may be key to keeping gamers in the Battlefield ecosystem along with attracting new ones. But since EA still has Apex Legends churning out content years after its launch, I’m not so sure it wants Battlefield to potentially be the final nail in that game’s coffin.

Live-service games are difficult and expensive to upkeep, so BR may not be in the game’s future. But are Battlefield’s classic modes enough to keep gamers interested and spending money? We may never find out.

I’m not sure if BR is the answer, but something to sate the new era of gamers in a changing landscape to keep them satisfied along with long-time Battlefield fans is a challenge that EA and its studios has to be ready for, otherwise another 2042 situation may be at hand.

But with the help of its community, the new Battlefield could end up being a more refined, complete experience at launch, and that may be just what it takes to bring in scorned CoD fans in lifting EA’s FPS franchise to the top of the heap.