The next Battlefield game, often referred to online as Battlefield 6, looks to be a return to the franchise’s modern warfare roots, and that has many fans, myself included, excited to play it. However, behind the scenes, EA reportedly has wild expectations for the game, which might cost as much as $400 million or more, and is struggling to cross the finish line.
We first heard about a new Battlefield game in April 2024, as EA confirmed it was winding down support for Battlefield 2042. Later that same year, franchise boss and Respawn head Vince Zampella told IGN that the next Battlefield game cited BF3 and BF4 as the “pinnacle” of the series and wanted the next game to get back to that type of “modern” combat and grounded warfare. In early 2025, EA began letting players test the next Battlefield game, and that’s when we started to get our first look at the FPS in action. It looks a lot like BF4 but with better visuals, more destruction, and some new features. But development on this next entry has reportedly been very expensive, messy, and rough on the people making it.
In a new in-depth report from Ars Techinca, multiple developers who are currently working on or have worked on Battlefield 6 talked about their concerns and what some see as unrealistic goals. For example, EA is apparently aiming for 100 million players, a number that is orders of magnitude higher than anything the franchise has reached in the past. BF2042, launched in 2021, has only hit around 22 million. And Battlefield’s most successful game, BF1, reached “maybe 30 million plus” players, according to one anonymous source.
EA declied to provide a comment to Ars Techinca.
To help reach that high player count, EA has enlisted multiple studios to work on the next Battlefield together. The idea was for some teams to work on different parts of the game to create one larger package. BF6 is reported to include a free-to-play mode, multiple premium online options, and even a full single-player suite as well as a community-driven game mode. But this plan has reportedly led to tension between Dice, the original creators of Battlefield, and EA leadership, who have taken more control over the next entry after 2042 flopped out of the gate.
The high cost of making the next Battlefield
EA’s desire to compete with Fortnite and Call of Duty, while building something this big across so many teams located in different parts of the world, has reportedly led to a ballooning budget. Ars Techinca’s sources claim Battlefield 6's budget is over $400 million. That’s around the same amount of money spent on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Fast X, some of the most expensive movies ever made. Though it is about half what Activision has spent on recent Call of Duty games, like Black Ops Cold War.
The massive scope of Battlefield 6, its huge budget, and the deadline to get the game out before March 2026 have reportedly led to a lot of people working very hard and long hours on the game.
“There’s like—I would hesitate to count—but a large number [of devs] compared to other projects I’ve been on that have taken mental exhaustion leave here,” one staff member told the outlet. “Some as short as two weeks to a month, some as long as eight months and nine.” Others reported long hours, starting their day as early as 5 am to coordinate with teams around the globe, and people feeling burned out.
The next Battlefield game will be officially unveiled sometime this summer, according to EA, and I expect it will look great and likely get a lot of people hyped. But will it be enough for EA after it has spent all this money? And will the people who worked so hard on this game see any reward or stability after BF6 launches? These are questions we won’t get answered until after launch.
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