The worst-kept secret in gaming right now is that Battlefield 6 will have a free-to-play battle royale mode. The rumors have said it, Ars Technica’s reporting has said it, and leaks have all but shown it in action.
EA’s veil of secrecy is so impractical at this point that, during a Battlefield 6 multiplayer reveal event in Los Angeles, developers danced around the subject of battle royale with all the subtlety of a wink and nudge.
“There’s talk of a BR coming?” Battlefield Studios’ Andy McNamara jokingly posed to a panel of developers during a live Q&A.
“I don’t want to be a bore. I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but we will talk a little bit more about other things we have going on a bit later,” Battlefield creative director Thomas Andersson responded.
During the reveal livestream today, EA showed a short teaser with a wall of fire, signaling it’s bringing back the Firestorm format from Battlefield 5. Whatever it is, it’ll be tested in the BF Labs playtest program first.
So, it’s a non-confirmation confirmation—the most irritating kind of confirmation. Now it looks like EA could be following the Call of Duty: Warzone model even closer than we thought: Is it kicking battle royale talk down the road because that mode/standalone game/whatever isn’t coming until sometime after Battlefield 6 itself?
Battle royale is on the back burner, but Battlefield 6 multiplayer is sizzling hot. I played four hours and came away convinced Battlefield is really back this time. We also learned BF6’s release date, when next week’s open beta starts, and all about the return of Portal.