If you ask most Battlefield 6 players to name the game’s worst maps, two names will come up over and over, likely in a disgusted or tired tone: Blackwell Fields and New Sobek City. And EA has confirmed that these two very bad, no good, horrible maps will be reworked this year and hopefully improved.
Earlier this week, EA and Battlefield Studios invited Kotaku and other outlets and creators to a preview of what’s coming to Battlefield 6 in 2026. The full answer is: A lot of stuff! That includes naval warfare, Wake Island, prox chat, and a server browser, too. But it ain’t all new content. EA explained during the event that it is also willing to go back and rework older maps, which they’ll be doing starting with Sobek (a launch map) and Blackwell (added in season one).
Why and how New Sobek and Blackwell are being reworked
Roman Campos-Oriola, senior creative director at Motive on Battlefield 6, explained that the reason these two maps were picked for reworks comes down to player feedback and internal data. It became clear to the devs that these two maps needed more than just some minor tweaks.
“We have a lot of tools to make adjustments and balancing [changes] while the map is live,” said Campos-Oriola. “But sometimes—and that’s the case for Blackwell Fields, that’s the case for Sobek City—there’s [only] so much we can do [when a map] is live. And there are some modifications that actually require level design, level art. Like, deeper modifications [to] the map to be able to achieve what the target is for those maps. That’s what we are doing to Sobek and to Blackwell.”
The senior creative director said that EA is reworking “some of the geometry” in both maps and making changes to capture points and cover, too, in order “to address the balancing issues that we see on those maps.” The end goal is simple, if challenging: Making sure these maps “meet the standard that we want them to achieve.”
This will also involve improving the flying experience on both of these maps, with Campos-Oriola specifically stating that the “flying experience” is “important” and that the devs have learned a lot about how to balance flying vehicles and infantry thanks to feedback and data.
When Kotaku asked EA if these maps would need to be removed from the game to be fixed, a spokesperson confirmed that they’d be left in while the work was ongoing, and would only be replaced once the reworks are completed. EA and the devs didn’t specify precisely when to expect these reworks of Blackwell Fields or New Sobek City, only saying “later this year.”
Still, as someone who hates New Sobek City with a passion, I’m excited to see it get a big shake-up. Both of these are bad maps. I mean, there’s a reason they can be found at the bottom two spots on our ranking of Battlefield 6 maps.
