Since Battlefield 3 was released, new games have come on a pretty regular schedule, averaging 2-3 years apart. We had Battlefield 3 in 2011, Battlefield 4 in 2013, Battlefield Hardline in 2015, Battlefield 1 in 2016, and Battlefield 5 just last year in 2018. With that in mind, it shouldn’t be that surprising that we won’t see the next Battlefield game until mid-2021, even if the wait is a little longer than normal. This news comes from none other than EA CEO Andrew Wilson during an investor’s call when he confirmed the next Battlefield wouldn’t hit the market until EA’s 2022 fiscal year, and that starts April 1, 2021.
The reasoning is behind this is skewed a bit, but part of it has to do with the fact that EA isn’t done with Battlefield 5 quite yet. And, Apex Legends is doing so well, that EA can afford to let Battlefield 5 linger as there’s no rush to bring another follow-up right away. The third, and maybe most important reason, is that EA wasn’t to target enhancements and innovation made available by next-gen consoles. That means better graphics and more realistic gameplay for us, so that wait just might be worth it. During the call, Wilson said,
Our Battlefield franchise and its community are also a major focus for us, and we’ll add new content and new ways to play Battlefield 5 in FY21. Targeting new innovation that will be enabled by next-gem platforms and a growing install base on the new consoles, our next Battlefield game is set for FY22. We still see a burgeoning opportunity with Battlefield 5, and as I talked about in the prepared remarks, we’re about to launch a whole new theater of war with the Pacific theater. And the team is still really thinking about to continue to drive that service on a go-forward basis,” he explained. “So we think there’s an opportunity still inside the Battlefield 5 experience, as it was built as a base live service from the beginning.”
Adding even more disappointment to the delay of Battlefield 6 – if that’s what it will be called – is the fact that Titanfall 3 has been completely overlooked thanks to, you guessed it, Apex Legends. Wilson promised that it won’t be forgotten about down the road, but the entire development team is more focused on Apex Legends at the moment than anything else – you have to go where the money is at, right?
We really want to keep the team hyper-focused on Apex because we see there’s so much opportunity there, so I can’t give you a sense of if or when [a new Titanfall] will come,” he said. “But it’s still a great brand, and we certainly won’t forget about it down the road.”
At least we know that a new Battlefield game is coming eventually and so will Titanfall 3. The wait for Titanfall 3, however, seems like it will be much more significant than the 2-3 year wait we have for Battlefield 6.
