EA Interested In Creating a Free-to-Play Battle Royale Game

Battle Royale is everywhere and with Epic Games now worth 8 billion dollars thanks to Fortnite, the number of publishers and developers interested in this game mode just went through the roof.

During a recent investor call, Chief Financial Officer for EA, Blake Jorensen, took center stage to talk about the potential of more Battle Royale in the future since the topic of multiple IPs was in the air. When asked if Battlefield V's introductory Battle Royale mode coming soon would open the door to more games with this particular game style, Jorgensen said that a free-to-play standalone game wasn't in the cards right now but could definitely be in the future.

Fortnite's free-to-play Battle Royale mode only took two months to create and just the mobile version alone reportedly makes over 2 million dollars in two days. Since EA is a publisher and a publisher's concern is more focused on the business side of game development and working closely with investors, that potential reward would be incredibly appealing - especially so with their current business model.

According to the same report that mentioned that Battle Royale games could make over 20 billion dollars next year, the end of 2018 should see a total of 12.6 billion dollars netted, which is infinitely greater than the 1.7 billion the genre made in the year prior. 2018 was definitely the year for battle royale and the launch of both Battlefield and Call of Duty's versions will only make that genre grow both in popularity and monetarily.

For those that may not know what battle royale is, it's an online game style that can scale up to 100 players per match. They can go solo, or group up to four players together in a fight to the death to be the last player (or group) standing. It's competitive and requires strategy and quick thinking, and it's a very easy mode to implement. In fact, it only took Epic Games two months to whip up the Fortnite battle royale mode, and that gave the game a record-breaking boost.

What are your thoughts on EA potentially making a free-to-play Battle Royale game? Do you see another F2P title in this niche dethroning Fortnite? Sound off in the comments below!