Once inside Spectator Mode, you can observe the matches in four different views: First Person, Third Person, Tabletop and Freecam View. Each view comes with its own merits, and our goal is for players to find the perfect views for the situation at hand – and to easily switch between them.

The first view you will see in Spectator Mode is the Tabletop View. This is visually similar to the Commander Mode screen, and here you will have a UI with icons for the starting points, players, vehicles, and so on. From this position, you can then select anything that has a camera – players and all the vehicles – and you see their actions in a smaller picture-in-picture screen. Using Tabletop View and its smaller screen gives you a great overview of both the big and the small aspects of the battle.

Switching to First Person View puts you in the heat of the battle and is visually reminiscent of actually playing Battlefield 4 yourself. Third Person View also follows one specific player, but from an overhead perspective. This gives the Spectator a wider view of the surroundings, and captures the chaos of all-out war in a more cinematic way. Finally we have Freecam View, where you have five different cameras that you can switch between. These cameras are placed on the map by us from the beginning, but you can move them anywhere you want – an ideal setup if you are creating your own Battlefield 4 movies. You can capture all the action from different angles to get that cinematic feel, like the one you see in our own Battlefield 4 trailers. One cool thing is that the video team here at DICE actually use the Spectator Mode themselves to capture those cinematic camera angles.

To make a game interesting in the world of competitive gaming, you have to be able to have spectators. We want to give people a chance to view players that are really good at Battlefield 4, and for anyone to share their experiences. While no one can say exactly when, we at DICE are convinced that e-sports will someday become the most popular sport on the planet, and we’d like Battlefield to be one of the games that makes that happen. That’s another reason why we need a Spectator Mode, and a really good one as well.
Battlefield 4 Spectator Mode Third-Person View

All the game modes are great to spectate, but we’re really excited about Obliteration. By design, this game mode focuses the action into a single point of interest – namely where the bomb is and what’s happening to it – which makes for exciting and easy to follow spectator experiences, not to mention plenty of crazy Battlefield moments.