‘Battlefield’ could be delayed to avoid a ‘Grand Theft Auto 6’ clash
The new Battlefield could be delayed to avoid clashing with Grand Theft Auto 6, says EA boss Andrew Wilson.
The follow-up to 2021’s Battlefield 2042 is expected to return the series to the present day. Earlier this week, EA confirmed the next installment in the long-running shooter series will be released at some point during the next fiscal year (which runs from April 1 2025 to March 31 2026) but now CEO Andrew Wilson has confirmed that could change.
“I do believe that this year might be a nuanced year relative to competition,” he admitted during an investors call. “There may be some things happening in the year that may cause us to think differently about our launch timing.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is due out in autumn but developers Rockstar have yet to confirm a firm release date. There are plenty of rumours it may be pushed back to 2026, which would mean both GTA 6 and Battlefield would have the same, loose release window. Earlier this year it was reported that several games had been delayed due to Grand Theft Auto 6’s unconfirmed release date.
During the investors call, Wilson explained that EA had “invested more in this Battlefield than any Battlefield before” and the studio were looking for “this to be the biggest Battlefield we’ve ever made.”
“We want to make sure that we launch that into a window where we can deliver on the fullness of the promise of what Battlefield can be and grow the community to a level that is commensurate with the size of the game that we’re making,” he continued (via Eurogamer).
“If we got close to that [release window] and believed that it wasn’t going to be a great for us, then we would take a look at what an alternate window might be that would give us the appropriate time, energy, and player acquisition opportunity for this Battlefield to be all that it needed to be.”
In other news, Nintendo has confirmed when fans can expect more news on the Switch 2, with a special Direct announced for April.
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Ali Shutler
NME
