Battlefield Labs is a community playtest collab for the next Battlefield

thesixthaxis.com:

EA has announced Battlefield Labs, a community collaboration project aiming to get direct feedback and shape the development of the next Battlefield by a group of studios that includes Criterion, DICE, Ripple Effect and Motive Studios – now under the collective name of Battlefield Studios.

The announcement video also gave us a very brief first look at the next Battlefield game.

Battlefield Labs testing will go live in the coming weeks and sign ups are now live at battlefield.com/labs. Initial tests will be invite only and use players and servers in Europe and North America, before expanding in future waves. Taking part does require signing an NDA, so no public chit-chat will be happening until EA is good and ready to talk about the game some more.

DICE will remain primarily responsible for the game engine and the multiplayer side of the game, while the focus for Criterion has been on the single player – returning for this game after skipping Battlefield 2042. They’re being supported by Motive with multiplayer maps and single player content, while Ripple Effect is working on “an experience that is really going to open Battlefield to a whole group of new players”, but Senior Producer Ryan McArthur.

It’s curious to see how this group has been brought together, as while the Battlefield Studios brand is new, the collaboration between these studios is familiar – all uniting on a single game project is a far cry from the Battlefield universe that was envisioned back in 2021. Criterion has often been brought in to assist, working on vehicular content for Star Wars Battlefront II, the Firestorm battle royale mode for Battlefield V, and was dragged away from Need for Speed to help with Battlefield 2042. Motive’s closest ties to the franchise has been with creating the single player for Battlefront II – it’s a little unexpected to see them seemingly take a supporting role to Criterion on this.

Lastly there’s Ripple Effect, formerly known as DICE LA, and a part of the Battlefield