Battlefield is a military first-person shooter video game franchise developed by Battlefield Studios, primarily led by Swedish company DICE, and published by American company Electronic Arts. The series mainly focuses on online multiplayer, with gameplay taking place across large maps, and emphasizes teamwork and combined arms warfare.
The first installment of the franchise, Battlefield 1942, was released for Microsoft Windows and OS X computers in 2002. Since then, the series' installments have sold 88.7 million copies worldwide as of November 2022.
Contents
Gameplay
The Battlefield games usually focus on large-scale, online multiplayer battles between two conflicting military forces; in Battlefield Hardline, the military setting is replaced with a "war on crime" between the police Special Response Units and the criminals. Playing in squads has become a major element of games in the series. Apart from infantry, tanks, airplanes, and other vehicles may participate in these battles. Since Battlefield 2, the series centrally recorded online stats for each player, allowing users to receive rank promotions and weapon unlocks based on their performance as well as awards such as medals, ribbons, and pins. While continuing to focus on large, online multiplayer battles, 2008's Battlefield: Bad Company introduced full single-player campaigns with more fleshed-out storylines. It was also the first game to use the studio-developed game engine, Frostbite, which introduced almost fully destructible environments; a feature that has since become one of the most well-known staples of the series.
The series' flagship game mode is "Conquest", where two teams of players attempt to gain control of the most control points until the other team's tickets (respawns) run out. To capture a control point, players must stand within the capture area until their team captures it. Should a control point be captured already by the enemy team, or should any enemy players contest it, players must eliminate all enemy players and/or neutralize the control point first by standing within the capture area. Captured control points may act as respawn points for players, though they can also respawn on squad members who are not in combat and specialized equipment carried by certain classes. Vehicles cannot spawn at a command post and must be obtained from the team's "headquarters", which act as the team's main spawn point. Battlefield V introduces the battle royale game mode to the Battlefield series, which merges the franchise's "core pillars of destruction, team play, and vehicles" with common elements seen in traditional battle royales, and Battlefield 6 introduces a knockout elimination mode titled "Gauntlet" where eight squads of four players seek to complete four sets of objectives while trying not to fall into the bottom two teams.
Outside of early versions of Battlefield 2042, the Battlefield series features a class system. Different classes are suited to different roles in combat. Historically, the series featured the Anti-tank, Demolition, Medic, Specialist, and Special Forces classes, before these were merged into other classes in later games. The classes as seen in modern titles was first introduced in Battlefield: Bad Company 2: the Assault, who specializes in all-round combat, Engineer, who carries out in-field repairs to vehicles while being equipped with anti-vehicular weapons, Medic (later Support), who resupplies and revives fallen allies, and Recon, who specializes in spotting enemies and using sniper rifles to engage in long-distance combat. The ability to engage other players in melee combat with a knife has been present in Battlefield games, but since Battlefield 2142, the series has included an award of dog tags for each player killed using a knife.
Development history
Battlefield 1942 was released on September 10, 2002, using the Refractor game engine, and set in World War II. It introduced the "Conquest" gameplay mode, in which players fought for "control points" throughout the map. Two expansion packs were released.
Battlefield Vietnam, released in 2004, moved the setting to the Vietnam War, and was built on an updated Refractor engine with various gameplay improvements, such as the ability to fire personal weapons while seated in vehicles, and visualizing dense foliage.
The 2005 release Battlefield 2 takes place in the modern day, depicting a war between the United States and China and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition (MEC). Despite requiring numerous patches due to a large number of bugs and glitches in the game upon its release, it was a large commercial success, selling more than 2,250,000 copies worldwide, by July 2006. One expansion pack, Special Forces, which added Russia, exclusive missions, and new weapons and gadgets, and two booster packs, Armored Fury (adding three new battles in the USA) and Euro Force (adding the European Union), were also released. A similar game called Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was released for consoles, with a larger single player mode but limited online play.
Battlefield 2142 was released in 2006, taking place during a global ice age in the 22nd century. While most of it is graphically similar to Battlefield 2, it introduced a variety of equipment to unlock and battles between two giant "Titan" airships. The Northern Strike expansion pack was later released, adding new maps, vehicles, and a new game mode. Its use of in-game advertising was controversial among players and not well received.
Battlefield: Bad Company, released in 2008, is set in a near-future war between the United States and Russia, and follows a US Army company's escapades and their search for hidden gold. This new Battlefield game had a variety of vehicles for land, air and sea. It had a new destruction system that allowed the player to break and destroy environments, based on a new game engine named Frostbite, which replaced the Refractor engine used in earlier releases (with the exception of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, which used RenderWare).
Other media
Canceled television series
In October 2012, Fox Broadcasting Company announced their intentions to make a one-hour-long television show based on Battlefield: Bad Company. The show was to be written by executive producer John Eisendrath and co-produced by Patrick Bach and Patrick O'Brien of Electronic Arts, and Doug Robinson of Happy Madison. Nothing has been developed after their announcement.
In July 2016, Paramount Television announced that it will adapt the game series for television. Anonymous Content's Michael Sugar and Ashley Zalta will executive produce. Nothing became of that, but Electronic Arts discussed a spinoff TV show or movie in September 2024.
Film
In April 2026, a film adaptation was announced with Christopher McQuarrie directing and Michael B. Jordan producing and possibly starring. A bidding war is currently taking place for distribution rights, with a priority for a theatrical release.
