The expectation is so high that we find it hard to take it seriously, so we don’t even want to think about the consequences of failure.

From the outside, the mood around Battlefield 6 (which still has no official title) seems positive. The creative direction—essentially a reimagining of Battlefield 3 and 4—has been well received, according to Reddit playtest leaks.

Behind the scenes, however, development could be going better. As Ars Technica reported, Electronic Arts‘ ambitious, multi-studio strategy for the Battlefield franchise has turned out to be more chaotic than coordinated.

The budget for Battlefield 6 has reportedly ballooned to over $400 million. The single-player story is far behind the multiplayer, major features are still undecided, and the game is entering alpha—while EA management is aiming for a sky-high player count that even the developers don’t believe is realistic: 100 million.

This goal includes the post-launch period and is incredibly ambitious for a franchise that has always been a niche alternative to Call of Duty and has lost relevance in recent years.

According to one EA employee, the Battlefield series has never come close to such numbers. In a similar time frame, Battlefield 2042 reached only 22 million, and even at the franchise’s peak with Battlefield 1, the player count barely passed 30 million.

Electronic Arts is betting on a free-to-play battle royale mode—described by Ars Technica as the core offering of Battlefield 6—to bridge the audience gap. While rumors of this mode have leaked during playtests, this Warzone-style approach of offering BR for free while charging for the traditional Battlefield experience is something new.

According to Ars Technica‘s sources—including many DICE developers—very few believe the 100 million target is even remotely achievable. Is this a setup for a major backfire?

Source: PCGamer, Ars Technica