Battlefield Is Getting Its Own Connected Universe Along With New Leadership

EA is giving the Battlefield series something of a shake-up, following a fairly rocky launch for its latest flagship title, Battlefield 2042.

Speaking with Gamespot, the franchise’s freshly-instated lead Vince Zampella (Call of Duty, Titanfall, Apex Legends) revealed that his new role is not to undo or overwrite any of Battlefield 2042 but to create all-new experiences within a “connected Battlefield universe.”

“This is an ‘And’ strategy in many ways,” Zampella says to Gamespot’s Chris Periera. “We will continue to evolve and grow Battlefield 2042, and we’ll explore new kinds of experiences and business models along the way that we can add to that foundation to provide an awesome array of experiences for our players. In this universe, the world is interconnected with shared characters and narrative. This universe is also built with our community as we harness the power of Portal and user generated content that puts creativity in the hands of our players.”

“We intend to build a Battlefield universe, one with multiple projects that are interconnected with the player at the center,” said Zampella. “We plan to grow Battlefield and meet players where they play through various experiences and business models, including our upcoming Battlefield Mobile coming in 2022 from Alex Seropian and Industrial Toys.”

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Alongside Zampella, EA has also brought on some more new talent in the form of Marcus Lehto, known for his work on the Halo series. Lehto will oversee a new studio based in Seattle where the team will work on world-building and narrative within the Battlefield franchise. Then there’s also the aforementioned Battlefield Mobile as well as a potential other project in the works at EA’s Ripple Effect studio.

It’ll be interesting to see where this all goes, especially with the lack of single-player narrative content in the newest Battlefield coming off as a sore point for some while the way it folds in familiar locations and experiences from previous games in its Battlefield Portal mode garnering some favour.