A new report about the development on the next Battlefield game (codename Glacier) made its way online today. According to insider information, shared via Ars Technica, the behind the scenes development has been anything but smooth within Electronic Arts. Development on the next Battlefield has already had to deal with "culture clashes, ballooning budgets, and major disruptions." These are all contributing to a fear that "parts of the game will not be finished to players' satisfaction in time for launch during EA's fiscal year."
According to what Ars Technica heard, the budget on Battlefield 6 has already shot past $400 million. Development on the single-player campaign is apparently far behind the development of the game's multiplayer components. As of May 2025, each component of the next Battlefield hit alpha status except for the single-player campaign. Parts of the single-player might have to be cut in order for the game to release with any sort of campaign as planned.
If that weren't already bad enough, Electronic Arts has an absolutely absurd player count goal for Battlefield 6: 100 million players. This 100 million player count is what EA wants to see for Battlefield 6 "over a set period of time that included post-launch."
"Obviously, Battlefield has never achieved those numbers before," one EA employee told me. "It's important to understand that over about that same period, 2042 has only gotten 22 million," another said. Even 2016's Battlefield 1—the most successful game in the franchise by numbers—had achieved "maybe 30 million plus."
While it's nice to have dreams and wishes, not everyone shares the same ones. Ars Tecnica's sources say that "very few people" working at the various Battlefield development studios believe that the 100 million target is achievable. In fact, "many of those who had worked on Battlefield for a long time at DICE in Stockholm were particularly skeptical."
The full report from Ars Technica goes into greater detail about all of these aspects and more. It contains information about other issues going on with the development of Battlefield 6: Employee burnout, how far behind schedule the planned six-hour campaign is, the shuttering of Ridgeline, and more. There is also word of some tensions between the various EU and US studios, which have different goals and expectations for the next game.
................I can't even play Battlebit Remastered anymore... Maybe the $400 million could've been used to make a dent in Battlebit's Early Access development. I-....I-........I'm out!
After the last disaster the studio needs to build itself back up again, just make a solid Battlefield multiplayer game and ignore the rest, keep the budget manageable, despite their missteps there's still a lot of loyalty for the brand and even though it's free Delta Force players will still check out a new Battlefield entry, but just like 2042 if it's not polished it's going to fail hard, not that it has any chance of succeeding with those absurd expectations this is a s*** plan.
I am so confused.