EA wants the community to help shape the next Battlefield

EA has announced a new “Battlefield Labs” community testing program to give people the opportunity to test the next Battlefield game. You can sign up for the program now, and EA says that the “first phase” of testing will go live in “the coming weeks” for invited players in Europe and North America. As I write this, there’s a long queue to attempt to sign up for Battlefield Labs; there are just under 200,000 people ahead of me and my estimated wait time is “more than an hour.” EA says that “your position in the registration queue does not affect your chances of being invited,” so if you don’t want to deal with the queue, you might want to wait a bit to try to register. Battlefield Labs follows other early testing initiatives from EA like its work with the new Skate game and with the Project Rene game in The Sims franchise. But Battlefield Labs is also likely an attempt to avert another Battlefield 2042 situation; that game had a rough launch and didn’t meet EA’s expectations. In a video accompanying the announcement, EA detailed how its “Battlefield Studios” – Dice (which created the franchise), Criterion (known for its racing games), Motive (which worked on Dead Space and is making a new Iron Man game), and Ripple Effect (which made 2042’s Portal mode) – are teaming up on the development of this next game, which will have single player and multiplayer modes. The series is under the oversight of Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella following a shakeup shortly after 2042’s launch.