DICE Is Holding Back Firestorm to Avoid Overwhelming Battlefield V Players

When Battlefield V arrives, the core experience will feature a whole host of content. Its story mode alone, War Stories, looks remarkably impressive. However, the team at DICE is holding back some of the goods for the time being. Battlefield V’s battle royale mode, Firestorm, is scheduled to launch in March 2019. While some may think this means Firestorm was an afterthought, DICE says there is a reason for the staggered release. The developer thinks launching too much content all at once risked overwhelming the Battlefield player-base.

Live Service Development Director Ryan MacArthur told VG247 that DICE wants to ensure each gameplay experience feels unique.

Basically, when we look at the live service, we looked at how we want to build the game from a gameplay perspective. We want to make sure that each introduction of new gameplay is able to stand on its own and is able to stand out from everything else in a way that makes players want to focus on it.

According to MacArthur, launching everything simultaneously seemed like a recipe for disaster. Not only did a staggered release of content reduce chances of overwhelming players, it aids in stretching out the experience. Therefore, fans have something to anticipate, even after feeling as though they’ve done it all.

MacArthur added:

So we look at things like Firestorm and the Combined Arms co-op experience—putting all of that together, you almost create a world where there are too [many] things to do. We want players to have this—here is the core Battlefield experience, and here’s a co-op experience built off that, and here’s a battle royale experience built off that.

Players have things to look forward to and they can spend time with each mode. Otherwise you have a similar thing like with expansions where the playerbase gets fragmented. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room if you put to much in.

Could this work in DICE’s favor? We’re unlikely to have a definitive answer for a long while.

Battlefield V will launch on November 20, 2018.

[Source: VG247]