Despite being described as a definitive next-gen experience, EA has now confirmed Battlefield 6 will also be released on last-gen consoles.
After plenty of demand from fans of EA’s Battlefield franchise, the publisher finally revealed some concrete details about Battlefield 6 this week. That the next chapter in the Battlefield saga will release during the final quarter of 2021, and also that it will be released on last-gen consoles as well as PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
On the surface, that sounds like good news. In fact, it is good news for a number of reasons. However, it flies in the face EA CEO Andrew Wilson referring to the next Battlefield game as a “truly next-gen experience”. If the game is coming to both new consoles and old ones then that promise will be a hard one to keep.
Wilson did attempt to clarify exactly what he meant later on in the same earnings call. “The reference specifically from our prepared remarks is around the nature of gameplay, what we can do with fidelity of the game, what we can do with physics, artificial intelligence and the immersive nature of the game,” Wilson explained. Promising stuff, but those of you who remember the launch of Battlefield 4 might well be worried about another cross-gen launch for the franchise, and rightly so.
Some of the struggles other developers have had launching games on both the current generation and the last generation might also have you worried. While some games have ignored the last-gen entirely, there is obviously a lot of money to be made from launching on both. A player base of almost 200 million people across PlayStation and Xbox, not to mention the difficulty many continue to have finding a new console.
Sony believes PS5 shortages will continue into 2022. That means should Battlefield 6 remain on schedule, its release will be affected. EA has weighed up those pros and cons and is clearly confident it won’t repeat the mistakes that were made with Battlefield 4. Whether a game released on two different generations of console can provide a definitive next-gen experience remains to be seen.
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