We don’t know much about Battlefield V‘s battle-royale mode other than that it won’t be shipping with the game at launch, indicating that DICE is taking its time with bringing the mode to the popular first-person shooter series. Or should I say, some unknown developer is taking its time, because apparently the battle-royale mode has been shipped out to a different studio, and isn’t being made by DICE at all.
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The news comes way of DICE community manager Ben “F8RGE” Walker, who confirmed (via Reddit) that the mode is being helmed by a different studio entirely.
As you may know, shipped out work for big games is fairly common. For example, 2016’s DOOM had multiplayer in it not touched by developer id Software at all. It was completely developed by a different studio. This is to say, it’s not that surprising that DICE has called upon outside help for the development of Battlefield V. What is surprising is that it has done so for the battle-royale mode.
In case you’ve been under a rock on Pluto the past year, battle-royale is all the rave right now thanks to Fortnite, which has taken over the world and has left a trail of copycats behind. Like it’s classic space rival — Call of Duty — Battlefield decided to get in on the things by adding battle-royale to the series. And nobody can blame them. Just look at how much money Fortnite is making daily.
That said, why such a big and anticipated mode wouldn’t be developed by DICE itself, is, a bit strange. If there is one thing you can’t afford to do right now is to ship a bad battle-royale mode. It’s certainly not the future of Battlefield, but it will be important in the immediate future, especially if Call of Duty nails its own take on the sub-genre.
What isn’t clear is who DICE has tapped in its place. It’s likely another EA studio, as EA and DICE surely wouldn’t put such trust in a third-party. But maybe it did. Who knows.
Battlefield V is poised to release on October 19 via the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. For more news, information, and media on the game, click here.
