EA has been largely quiet about what it plans to do with the Battlefield franchise since ending of post-launch support for Battlefield 2042. The latest title famously did not meet expectations of the publisher, leading to Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella taking over the franchise overseeing duties over from DICE. Today, the company unveiled Battlefield Labs, a new initiative aimed at heavily involving the community with the next game's development.
"I’ve been playing Battlefield long before I joined the team," says Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization. "This game has so much potential. To find that potential, with us being pre-alpha, now is the time to test the experiences our teams have been building for our upcoming launch. Battlefield Labs empowers our teams to do that."
Battlefield Labs will let players try out "concepts and experiences" from pre-alpha builds of the series' next multiplayer experience. EA says input from players will help the development teams at DICE, Motive, Criterion, and Ripple Effect know what aspects to focus on going forward.
The tests will include looks at core combat and destruction, weapons, vehicles, gadgets, as well as maps, modes and squad play tactics, all in unfinished states. Battlefield Labs players will be under NDA, so don't expect these to be public tests.
There are some small clips of footage of the game in action at the end of the development update video above, showing an urban environment with large amount of explosions and destruction.
Sign ups for the Battlefield Labs platform is now available. EA says invites will be going out to a few thousand players at first, and only in Europe and North America. This is planned to expand into the "tens of thousands" with more regions being supported later.
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