Battlefield 6 Announces Upcoming Playtests

Battlefield 6 playtests are happening soon and we’ll find out the details in about 24 hours. The Battlefield series is one of the biggest shooter franchises out there and is a direct rival to Call of Duty. For years, both games would release back to back and there’d be online debate about which game would be better. Granted, both games are extremely different from each other in terms of gameplay, so it’s not very easy to measure this, but it doesn’t stop fans from having some friendly competition. Battlefield has made a name for itself by being a series that allows for gigantic, cinematic battles with dozens, sometimes hundreds of players and all-out destruction.

It makes it really unique because no other major game franchise has managed to match its scale. Buildings tumble down, players fight on land, air, and sea to conquer the objectives, and everyone has a role that encourages some level of teamwork across the board. It’s great, but Battlefield has also struggled tremendously in recent years. Many Battlefield games have launched with major server issues, bugs, and performance issues that have upset players. Battlefield 2042 was the worst example of this as it killed all positive momentum for the game and left it as a shell of what Battlefield should be. It was a big lesson learned for EA and DICE, though.

EA has spent the last four years making the next Battlefield game, currently the longest development time in the series to date. On top of that, there are tons of studios working in tandem to make it all work. EA has promised that Battlefield 6 will be a return to the golden age of the series and has cited games like Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 as its guiding stars for this new entry. The game doesn’t actually have an official title quite yet and we don’t have any gameplay or concrete details about it, but it sounds like all that may be coming imminently ahead of new playtests.

As part of EA’s desire to get Battlefield back on track and deliver the best game it can, it is starting playtesting on Battlefield 6 extremely early. Typically, a beta test will happen a couple months before the game releases to stress test servers, iron out some bugs, and figure out balancing in a live environment. However, EA aims to do almost an entire year of playtesting before Battlefield 6 launches in the fall. EA has already sent out NDAs for select players to play the new Battlefield and others may have the chance to jump in on the action very soon.

EA has confirmed that it will be officially detailing the Battlefield 6 playtests tomorrow, Monday, February 3rd at 8AM PT/11AM ET. It’s unclear if this will be some kind of live stream or just a blog post that details things. This may result in our first official look at the game, though, as EA will want to prepare fans for what they’re about to play. It seems likely playtests will begin as soon as this month or next month at the very latest. Even if we don’t get any trailer or gameplay, it seems likely that Battlefield 6 gameplay will probably leak online at some point. No matter how many NDAs are signed or how many security measures are put in place, public playtests almost always result in some kind of leak.

Regardless, it’s great that Battlefield 6 is working with the community to take on feedback and shape the game in its final year of development. It’s rare that a big game like this does something at this scale, but maybe it will mean more games try something like it in the future. It’s likely these playtests will get bigger and bigger throughout the year, allowing more people in as time goes on. Whether or not it results in the big, ambitious Battlefield game people want remains to be seen.