As many gamers are aware, with the popularity of titles such as Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds currently dominating the cultural landscape of the industry, it should come as no surprise that battle royale modes are being expected of most, if not all shooters coming out this year. Battlefield V, however, doesn't intend to capitalize on the trend just yet it seems, as DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson has confirmed that the studio's game will not feature a battle royale mode at launch.
This much was revealed by the DICE creative director while speaking to Newsweek during a media briefing held in London prior to the official Battlefield V livestream trailer reveal that took place earlier today. According to Gustavsson, the subject of the forthcoming first-person shooter had been broached within the studio, but he stated that it was still too early to discuss such future updates. This implies that while a battle royale mode won't come at launch, it could be a possibility at some point after release.
"There’s no hiding that there are a lot of conversations in the studio saying ‘its a perfect fit for Battlefield' because of all-out war and destruction, you name it it's in there. So there’s definitely been talks around it, but at this point it’s talks and nothing to mention.”
Although Battlefield V won't have battle royale at launch, it's biggest competitor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, will introduce its own take on the mode called Blackout, which will contain content and assets from previous entries in the Black Ops series. With this being the case, there's a chance that such a feature could help the latter outperform the former due to battle royale being one of the most popular trends in recent memory. Then again, what's in vogue with fans now could easily start to become stale at a moment's notice, with the mode potentially falling out of favor soon.
While Battlefield V might be turning away a number of fans by not including a battle royale mode at launch, it's safe to say that a plethora will still be attracted to the title not only for the contents the base game will offer, but also for the fact that there won't be a Premium Pass. Taking all of this into consideration, though, we will simply have to wait and see if Battlefield V outshines its competition later this year, especially since there's much more of the game to be revealed in the coming weeks and months.
Battlefield V is set to release on October 19, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Source: Newsweek