@onemyke
BATTLEFIELD V: YEAR TWO (EA DICE/Criterion Software – X1/PS4/PC – Available Now) – EA has had its fair share of public woes as of late, but one of the least talked about hits the publisher has taken is the underperformance of one of its tentpole franchises — Battlefield. For perspective, the longtime FPS titan and only real competitor to Activision’s Call of Duty has been quietly underperforming since its release. According to The NPD group, the games sales did not make the top 10 for the year for the first time since 2010 (placing 14th).
That isn’t for a lack of trying though. The team at DICE has been working hard at bringing players all the post-launch content they promised since last E3 with the biggest addition being the new battle royale-survival mode, Firestorm, that dropped in March bringing back 1 million players — according to EA management on an earnings call earlier in May. In an era where Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty’s own Blackout, and EA’s own Apex Legends still exist and are doing relatively well in their own rights — that’s a significant amount of players…
Rather than teasing a new Battlefield for 2020 it seems that, according to EA Play’s appointments and lack of news, V is looking to get a steady stream of content for the rest of 2019. Since E3 is happening either right before, or during, of BV’s launch of Chapter 4: Defying the Odds event, it’s probably to be expected that we’re going to get a lot of talk hyping up how well the Firestorm mode is doing, along with news of updates. Although a fairly sizable update to the mode just happened on May 23rd, adding three major landmarks to the Halvøy map, expect some tidbits about upcoming additions regarding loot and map changes.
It would also make sense that they would keep talking about the new historical scenarios, maps (even after the May 30th release of Mercury – the coastal Spanish map) and modes that they’ll be adding to multiplayer — including Grand Conquest events and Combined Arms missions. June’s roadmap also teased a new Outpost mode which will cater towards hardcore players with a focus on base building and strategy. The new chapter brings a new map and mode called Up Close and Personal, a map called mountainous forest map called Marita, and an Urban Combat map.
While the Fall content is simply just being labeled as another chapter, we might be looking at near Destiny 2: Forsaken levels of updates to Battlefield V. The fifth chapter releasing this fall, right before BV’s year anniversary, is going to be called ‘Awakening the Giant’ which DICE has teased to be “An All Out Invasion In A New Theater of War”. By all accounts this seems to be teasing the fact that the Pacific Theater of WW2 is finally coming to Battlefield V – which has since focused on all the European conflicts. While it hasn’t been officially stated, Awakening the Giant refers to the classic film that depicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: Tora! Tora! Tora! “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
OG Battlefield 1942 fans should be really hyped to see their favorite maps from the first game in all their glorious current gen glory. This includes maybe seeing the entire Battle of Midway in Grand Conquest or getting to play Wake Island with 64 players and classes. A Battlefield 1942 Remake would have been enough of a thing for a publisher like EA to release, but the prospect of getting that in an already fine game like Battlefield V might be a decent win for a publisher and developer than really need it.