Battlefield REDSEC Interview: The Origins and Future of Battlefield's Battle Royale

At the end of October, fans were surprised to see that Battlefield 6 was not only getting a battle royale, but an entire free-to-play experience that stretches beyond the typical battle royale experience. It’s a battle royale, but also a hub for user-generated content and a separate PvP mode known as Gauntlet. All of this is packaged in a different game known as Battlefield REDSEC. It’s a pretty ambitious experience that offers something for everyone and gives fans plenty to chew on. However, the mode was launched without any pre-release marketing, it was just dropped and given directly to the fans.

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With that said, I got to sit down and talk with Thomas Andersson and Justin Wiebe from Battlefield Studios to learn about how Battlefield REDSEC came to be and what the future of the mode looks like.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Just after Battlefield 2042‘s launch, EA started talking about the future of Battlefield and vaguely said Ripple Effect is working on a new Battlefield experience. No one knew what that meant. Everyone kind of assumed maybe it’s a battle royale. Was that where the journey for REDSEC began? Was it all the way back in 2021?

Justin Wiebe: I remember being in meetings with [Thomas] and it was shortly after 2042, and there were so many key learnings I think on that. And it just solidified in our minds what we wanted to do for the Battlefield franchise and the potential of where it could be and where it was. There were a lot of hard conversations at that time to really forge what we want from Battlefield and what kind of universe we want to create for our players.

The one thing I think that came through crystal clear was that we need to bring in a lot more players and immerse them in the Battlefield universe. In order to do that, it needs to go free, and we need to do it in such a way that we can win back the hearts and minds of players with the Battlefield before we even go free.

That was, I think the big play and strategy for Battlefield 6 is to say, ‘Hey, we want to deliver exactly what Battlefield players want to play,’ and then we can talk about making it free. It doesn’t feel like it’s just the free version is a gated version of the experience. We want to give players something else. We want to do some new things with Battlefield as well as delivering what Battlefield fans want.

To do that, it required probably the most ambitious thing I’ve ever experienced in my career, which is to unify not just one or two studios, but a multitude of studios across all of EA, which is what created Battlefield Studios all working on Battlefield and all bringing their unique recipe from all the different games that they had been building to help create what we’ve been playing.

Thomas Andersson: I don’t think we started talking about battle royale straight away, but I think what Justin is touching on is that we immediately knew we wanted a free Battlefield [experience]. How can we grow this to break down the barriers to entry and just open up the gates, essentially let everyone enjoy Battlefield regardless of whether they want to pay for it or not. That’s how we started it.

Eventually, battle royale came to the conversation. We said, man, this is such a cool genre, and it’s been out for a while, but bringing the core Battlefield DNA into battle royale just makes a ton of sense. I mean, when you think about the large-scale world, bringing destruction as a unique differentiator into those experiences, layering in what players love about combat vehicles, and then creating that squad or class-based identity, it really does create a complete offering that brings all of core Battlefield DNA into the battle royale genre. At that point, we realized we had to do this. This could be amazing.

How did you decide on how much to integrate REDSEC with Battlefield 6? It is a standalone experience, but there is overlap with challenges and progression. It’s a shared experience. How did you decide how much to integrate it together?

Andersson: I mean, even from the get go, it’s taking advantage of what Battlefield is and making that free to play and then organizing rules around it for people to have fun in the best way possible in BR, Gauntlet, Portal, whatever they do. We started with the core and how to make the best Battlefield possible in MP and working as much of that into the experiences that we’re creating that are free. The same goes for progression. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to have this unified experience, so whatever you desire to play, your time is valuable, it’s counted, and you get something for it.

What did you want to bring to the battle royale genre to make REDSEC stand out?

Wiebe: One of the first ones is obviously destruction. Making sure that we focus on the destruction in a sense that we don’t just want spectacle. We don’t want to be just, ‘Oh, cool, a building fell.’ Everybody watches it, and then they turn back to shooting each other again. We very early on called it tactical destruction. We want destruction that you use to create an advantage over another squad. So if they run into a house, okay, what are all the tools that we have? I could RPG, then you guys rush in as support, you could shoot smoke in there, and you can use smoke as a cover and use squad play tactics.

I’ve got an artillery strike. Let’s bring the entire building down on them and force them out. Early on, we wanted to make sure that we’re really keying in on destruction as one of the number one identities for it. The second one is combat vehicles. Introducing them in a way that felt grounded, where initially it might present a bit of a jump in the power curve, but then quickly players will learn how to counter those vehicles to the point where it feels completely fair and balanced again.

The last one for me was just all the squad play gadgets and abilities and making sure that those are really punching through. Whenever you’re about to enter combat, you’re kind of taking a quick look at, well, what are all our capabilities? I’m going to throw down a quick TUGS. You start throwing in some smoke, and then we’re going to charge in and get ’em.

There have been some comparisons drawn to Warzone, and I think partially that’s because they’re both modern military shooters. Aesthetically, they’re just going to be similar. Was Warzone a source of inspiration for you guys, or did you guys try to avoid looking at what was around you?

Wiebe: I think everybody brings their own unique flavor to the creative [process]. With the combined might of all the different Battlefield Studios, there were so many sources of inspiration. We had people who had worked on the classic Firestorm battle royale [in Battlefield V]. We have people who are enthusiasts of various games. Myself, I’ve been in the battle royale scene since almost the very beginning of the battle royale scene.

I’ve played every single battle royale, taking notes on this. I love this. I love keeping the group together when you drop in instead of everybody just scattering their own way. So mechanics that keep the group together, that keep the squad together. I like mechanics that you might play where it’s like when we’re in the middle of looting and there’s no enemies around, is there something else that we could be doing right now?

So thinking about missions and how they can kind of come into the fold to say, ‘Okay, well, we got a little bit of time and space. We don’t want to just run around looking for the enemy. Let’s grab a mission. Let’s grow our power curve and get some cool gear or get a tank.’ So, I think it’s not one particular game, but rather looking across all the different genres and trying to bring them together to say which things are going to work right for us and merge them with the things the team wants to do.

Andersson: There are certain things that people are expecting, right? With the ring closing in, those kinds of things, let’s not get away from that. In fact, some of the things we’re trying early on in ideation, when it comes to if you need to drop in, for example, are there other things we could do instead? But yes, some things are hard to get away from.

There are other games force the ring in on you, but we have the deadliest ring in BR. So, the fact that you better respect the boundaries of this map in ways that you may not have been trained to do before, for people who have played a lot of BRs, that is a little bit of a reset. Maybe it’s not right to skirt the ring the entire time. Maybe you need to think differently about this stuff.

Has REDSEC been built with longevity in mind? Hypothetically, if there’s another Battlefield game, would this continue to coexist alongside it, or is it kind of just, we’ll see what happens?

Andersson: I don’t know that I want to answer that specific question, but what I will say is that yes, it’s been designed with longevity in mind. So we’re pushing from the launch that we’re in now into live service with every season, with every beat, those kinds of things we’re talking about how we transform, not just the features, but the map itself and other things that we’re adding to this thing. So for us, it is a living universe that’s going to continue to grow.

Wiebe: This is the beginning of the journey. We’ve been working for so many years to get this thing out. Now it’s finally out. Now we’re hearing from the community, and I think it’s an important time to stop and listen and use that knowledge to kind of help also build off of where we want it to go. Because it’s not just our game, it’s everybody’s game. An important part is that this is where we want it to go, but this is what players are saying. So let’s continue to adjust as we move forward.