Gameplay footage leaked from the upcoming Battlefield’s first playtest, and overwhelmingly positive first reactions should serve as a wake-up for Call of Duty.
EA called all hands on deck for the new Battlefield game, reportedly eyeing a 2025 launch. DICE, Criterion, Motive, and Ripple Effect collaborated on the game’s development under the new name Battlefield Studios.
If that wasn’t already evidence enough of how serious EA is taking this project, Battlefield is now under the lead of Vince Zampella, who is known for his work as an executive producer of several CoD titles and as the CEO of Titanfall 1 and 2.
Meanwhile, Call of Duty is experiencing a massive exodus as it struggles to retain players. The average player count on Steam in February was 54,575, the lowest number since the site started tracking in October 2022.
PC players only account for a small segment of the overall player base. Still, within hours of Battlefield gameplay footage leaking, it’s clear that Call of Duty has a real contender to go up against.
Battlefield finally shows signs of life
EA learned from the mistake of releasing Battlefield 2042 in a disastrous state and announced Battlefield Labs. The new program allows players to test the game and provide feedback before the final product is shipped. The first round of testing went live to try out updated movement animation and weapon recoil.
Within two days of announcing the service, the reveal trailer had 1.5 million views on YouTube and 2.3 million on Twitter. And because so many players attempted to sign up, the newly formed Battlefield Studios was forced to make adjustments to improve the sign-up experience.
So, anticipation was already high heading into the first playtest, but gameplay exceeded expectations. At the time of writing, CharlieIntel shared footage from Battlefield Labs, but there is always a chance it gets taken down because of a copyright claim.
The gameplay is just what you would expect from a classic Battlefield game. The iconic Assault, Engineer, Recon, and Medic classes are finally back. The setting is modern, buildings crumble around you, and there are tanks lurking around every corner of the urban map.
It’s still early, but for a pre-alpha build, the audio is crisp, the gunplay looks promising, and the movement is fluid.
On the other hand, Call of Duty is sending up a hail mary by bringing back Warzone’s original map, Verdansk, alongside Season 3, as a last-ditch effort to save the battle royale. Activision acknowledged that this update is a “big moment” for Call of Duty and delayed Season 3 to ensure it releases in a polished state.
But even tapping into nostalgia isn’t enough to bring back some players. TimTheTatman said he won’t be switching back to Warzone for Verdansk because Marvel Rivals already gives him everything he wants.
Nadeshot is also worried about CoD’s future and argued that the update is useless without anti-cheat improvements.
“All the good things they are doing is null and voided when you can’t play a real, fair game of Call of Duty,” Nadeshot explained.
CoD fans see the writing on the wall, and the devs reportedly do as well. A leak revealed there won’t be support for the battle royale in CoD 2026 if Verdansk fails to retain current and returning players.
It isn’t as if Black Ops 6 is a bad game, far from it. However, it clearly isn’t enough to keep the attention of longtime CoD fans, and that gives EA a chance to swoop in with Battlefield and sell those players the new experience they crave.
Whether this new Battlefield game blows CoD out of the water or if this competition spurs Activision into action, this is nothing but a good thing for fans of both series.
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