“… Deliver a true next generation experience for the franchise …” - Andrew Wilson - CEO, EA
Firstly, whilst battlefield 6 has been in development for about 3 years, perhaps maybe early concepts around 4 years, DICE & EA knew that by delaying it and taking that extra year of development and releasing it fall 2021 will hopefully pay off and fingers crossed it does. Secondly because of that decision it’s given the team more hands on and time with these next generation of consoles, to one create a battlefield experience like no other that takes complete full advantage of the power of these next generation of console. So stuff like;
Higher frame rates
Higher quality textures and lighting
Ray Tracing
Ambient sound inclusion and 3D Audio
Native 4K 60
and much more.
Because of the hardware limitations of last gen it would be extremely hard for DICE to create a true next generation experience for the franchise moving forward. With that said this takes me to my last point - Nov Q2 2020 and Feb Q3 2021 EA’s investors calls, even during the EA Play tech demo last year EA has said and I quote “We want to deliver a truly defining next generation experience for the franchise.” In this weeks call Q3 there was no reference or remarks made about a last gen release or anything like that, the only words they have used to describe the next Battlefield entry is by throwing around “next gen” and “deliver a true next generation experience for the franchise.”
So with all that said i personally don’t think we will see Battlefield 6 come to last gen however there is a possibility that they could potentially release it on those platforms to one maximise sales and if this does happen don’t expect this master piece of a game on last gen. Don’t expect 120 player counts, high frame rates, higher quality textures and ray tracing and so on, on the last gen consoles obviously due to hardware limitations. If you are someone who still hasn’t gotten a next gen consoles or isn’t planning on getting one this year but wants to get Battlefield 6, then I’d personally keep my expectations low for the last gen version/release if they do decide to also release it on this systems.
Dolby Atmos audio would be an incredible additon to the series. What about the rumours that they will be beefing up the backend to support 256 person matches (128 vs 128?). A lot of people in the community have made noise that it would be impossible to do that at scale, and the servers would melt. My simple answer to that is one word. Fornite. That is quite possibly the most popular game in the world right now, and it’s ONLY ‘competitive’ mode is 100 players. That’s it.
I think there are really going to be two versions of this game (sold under one title), with some of the fancy stuff not available on last gen (I am thinking 4k, 128 vs 128). The hardware is simply not there, but with PC and PS5 and the newest Xbox, there is more than enough ‘oomph’ to make it happen.
I disagree. There is a worldwide shortage of PS5 and Xbox Series X. Even if I wanted to, I could not go to the store today and buy a PS5. So without including support for last gen hardware, they eliminate %90 of the gamers.
In short that last few points, whilst it is highly possible to also launch on last gen due to the global situation shortage of next gen consoles and the player base on last gen, bottom line if you are in that situation don’t expect this masterpiece of a game, like still can expect hopefully a flawless, bug free game at launch just don’t expect it to have stuff like 128 player counts, Ray Tracing, high frame rates and so on due to the hardware limitations of last gen and to keep your expectations low when it comes to the last gen version of the game. I do believe also there is two versions of the game been developed on with the primary focus of development been on next gen and pc to truly deliver a true next generation experience for the franchise moving forward.
I have already been informed by Dawber from DICE LA that they do intend are releasing to current gen consoles as well. In process you will be given a code like BF4 did with ps3 to ps4.
Yeah I’ve also heard that as well basically in short just keep expectations low for last gen release. However it’s different from BF4 rather than primary focus development been on last gen than scaled up its primary development is next gen and pc to deliver a truly defining next generation experience for the franchise and then it would scaled back dramatically for last gen consoles.
BF4 was a whole mood (thankfully, I didn’t come across nearly as many problems as others), but BF1 and V launched fairly well all things considered; I’d say i’m causiously optimistic for BF6.
That said, CP2077 was a mess so I really hope they PR the heck out of BF6 if they decide to do cross-gen. At the very least, a simple “experience may vary” warning and free next gen upgrade should do the trick
I am not familiar with how they dumbed it down on the console platforms. Can you provide some details on what exactly happened? Did they limit the map size? Player count?
I think I am one of the lucky ones also, as I had zero issues with BF4, Battlefield 1 or Battlefield v. That being said, I am running on PC with some pretty decent hardware powering the game.
I think only BF3 had noticeable differences (the main one being player counts on PC); asaik, every title after just had graphical changes.
Oh I was referring to thr new Cyber Punk title from CD Project Red - their decision to go all out releasing on pretty much every system destroyed their reputation.
If DICE does decide to go multi gen this year, I just hope they don’t hype PS4 and XBone (especially base models) the same way they do next gen
They got hacked last night, so the source code will be released soon. Off topic, but I thought it was interesting.
Yeah, I am sure the advertising for the next Battlefield game will be all about next gen and PC, with a little tiny asterisk in the corner, not to be expected on PS4 and XB1
I spend too much time on all forums lol; “afaik” is shorthand for ‘as far as I know’, similar to iirc meaning if I remember correctly.
I’m not sure how well Xbox is selling but PS5’s have been pretty hard to come across - PS4/XB1 may not be as powerful but there should still be a market for them to tap into.
The last gen consoles will be graphically inferior and will have less people able to take the field. I believe the PS3 and 360 versions still only did 12 v 12, where Xbox One and PS4 did 32 v 32.
I just hope it will have crossplay. Probably not, but that would be great.
12 v 12? I ask you this. Whats the point. I assume with teams that size that they had to make the maps MUCH smaller. It would be a ghost town on some of the wide open maps to even try to find someone that you can shoot at.
Crossplay is an interesting one for sure. From a technial perspective, I can only imagine what a nightmare it would be. But if games like Fortnite (less advanced), then I guess it would be possible. THat being said, I suspect if they did implement crossplay, it would be crossplay within a generation. i.e PS5 can play with the new Xbox and PC, while PS4 can play with Xbox 1, and PC.
I mean, at the time, Battlefield 4 was coming to both generations because that’s the logical business strategy. More money. And yes, the maps were smaller. And the levelution wasn’t that fantastic looking.
So I imagine Xbox One and PS4 will stick with 64, while next-gen and PC will go to 128. However, I do think they will have three Conquest modes. “Massive Conquest” with full 128 players, Conquest Large for 64 players, and Conquest Small. If they don’t have it at the start, they’ll add it later. People will think 128 is too much.
If they didn’t, at least, do crossplay within generations, that’d be weird. Which is also why I think there will be a difference between Conquest rooms in case you’re playing with previous generation players.
That actually brings up another reason for crossplay, though. Eventually, filling a 128 room will be a lot. So I think it’d would definitely benefit DICE to add crossplay between all platforms. If anything, at least console to console crossplay.
I do wonder if PC Game Pass will be able to play with console Game Pass, though.
WHat do you mean? Levolution in Battlefield 4 was fantastic looking. A real ‘game changer’ if you ask me.
Interesting title. I wonder if that will be what it will be called. Keep it simple.
The more I think about the crossplay component, the more I think that they have to do it. With more and more games doing it (Fortnite, Rocket LEague), it would almost be expected from a major AAA title that has been in development for years.
THat being said, development started on this game so far back, that the PS5 and Xbox Series X probably did not even have prototypes.