DICE announced earlier this year that Battlefield V will be getting a Battle Royale mode following the release of the popular shooter. Little is known about Battlefield V Battle Royale, but investors are starting to ask questions about EA’s plans for trying to get a piece of this multi-billion dollar segment of the gaming industry.
The success of Epic Games’ Fortnite: Battle Royale as a free-to-play game has these investors asking whether EA has plans to try and do the same thing, and if so, how it will affect Battlefield V. In their most recent financial earnings call, Blake Jorgensen explained that Battlefield V’s Battle Royale mode would be just like any other mode in the game and that it would not be a standalone game.
Though that doesn’t mean that EA isn’t thinking of another way to get into the free-to-play Battle Royale space. “We’re interested in experimenting with a free-to-play standalone game,” says Jorgensen. “That might be in the shooter genre or another genre, but I don’t think that’s how we’re looking at the Battlefield stuff right now.”
Jorgensen’s comments definitely make it sound like EA is interested in doing a free to play Battle Royale game, but releasing a highly touted mode in Battlefield V and then developing something else entirely seems like a bit of overkill. This holds especially true if Battlefield V Battle Royale turns out to be a huge success that drives sales of the $59.99 game that’s going to offer a full suite of cosmetic downloadable content for players to purchase.
If it’s not a success, that could be the green light for this teased standalone Battle Royale game from Electronic Arts. Despite the free-to-play success of Fortnite: Battle Royale, analysts believe that Battlefield V will be just fine. One analyst report recently projected the game to sell 18 million copies by the end of the fiscal year in a best case scenario.
Battlefield V is set to arrive on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 19th, 2018.
