Battlefield 2042 should be the starting point for a BF connected universe between multiple games. A new era begins: the director of DICE leaves the group while the founder of Respawn takes the head of the franchise.
EA, who wishes to make a Battlefield Universe with its franchise of war games, is about to make major changes in the development of the series. The studio indeed wishes define a “connected universe of Battlefield games”.
According to Gamespot, Vince Zampella the co-founder of Respawn (EA studio and creator of Apex Legends) now in charge of the BF license, announces that he will not no plans to replace Battlefield 2042.
We will continue to evolve and develop Battlefield 2042, and we will explore along the way new types of experiences and business models that we can add to this base to provide an impressive array of experiences for our players. In this universe, the world is interconnected with shared characters and storytelling. This universe is also built with our community, as we harness the power of Portal mode and user-generated content that puts creativity in the hands of our players.
For its connected franchise universe, Battlefield will obviously be able to rely on its flagship game, but also Battlefield Mobile scheduled for 2022, or other games that could share points of this universe.
EA will therefore work with Ripple Effect (formerly DICE LA) which will build a “new experience” around Battlefield 2042. The studio will also always take care of the Portals mode, which will be improved. Several studios between Europe and North America will thus participate in the war effort.
With this announcement, the group is experiencing several changes. DICE CEO Oskar Gabrielson leaves DICE and EA, replaced by interim by Rebecka Coutaz, former director of Ubisoft Annecy. Vince Zampella has for his part been promoted to the head of the franchise.
Finally, the designer of Halo, Marcus Lehto, is responsible for creating a new development team in Seattle to build a shared universe around Battlefield and develop the background around the game and the characters.
Recently arrived from the Call of Duty franchise, Byron Beede explains that the new studio has a long-term project and will work on the game as on the “after”.
While he (Marcus Lehto, editor’s note) and his team in the Seattle area are only beginning to build the Battlefield world of tomorrow, their work will shape subsequent seasons for 2042 and beyond. […] This new studio will act as a storyteller in close collaboration with DICE and Ripple Effect Studios to help build great experiences for gamers in the Battlefield universe.
All this seems to indicate that new games are not planned for now, since the new managers did not want to define for the moment the framework of this expansion of the “canon universe” of Battlefield. The free-to-play envisaged for a time has not been confirmed, and new episodes of the franchise seem to be ruled out for the moment in order to focus exclusively on a Battlefield 2042 which will be maintained over the long term.
Source: www.gamespot.com
