Battlefield Royale? DICE Rumored To Be Testing New Mode

This is just a rumor for now, but you can't say it's too farfetched considering the current climate.

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Call of Duty has entered the rumor mill with reports that Black Ops 4 may release without a single-player campaign so its only right that the other big shooter, Battlefield, gets a turn at inciting a little bit of chaos. The same person who alleges that Battlefield V takes the franchise back to WW2 now says that the devs at DIVE are testing out a battle royale prototype.

Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat suggests, via anonymous sources, that mode with similar elements to PUBG and Fortnite is in the works. Thus, imagine an FPS conflict with 100 players dropped onto a map and you'd be in the ballpark. Grubb also adds that "EA could cancel the prototype, it could hold it off for the launch of the next Battlefield or a Star Wars: Battlefront sequel, or it could spin it out into its own game."

If it does perform well in the in-house tests, I could imagine it'll be a part of DICE's typically robust expansion roadmap for the Battlefield games. A full-blown and polished battle royale would be a nice adrenaline shot to the fanbase months beyond launch, but consider it just a rumor for now. Stay tuned to Shacknews for more updates.

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 18, 2018 2:10 PM

    Charles Singletary posted a new article, Battlefield Royale? DICE Rumored To Be Testing New Mode

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      April 18, 2018 2:22 PM

      why why why is royale the new fad.... I way prefer deathmatch to royale

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        April 18, 2018 2:28 PM

        Fad? What fad. There's no fad here. The experts have all assured us.

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          April 18, 2018 2:31 PM

          Just millions of people playing a new type of shooter within the span of a year, no big deal guys.

          How is anyone surprised by this

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            April 18, 2018 2:41 PM

            "Fad" implies some transience and a sense that the hype is baseless. Battle royale is a real substantive game mode that I don't think is going anywhere. The gold rush will end soon enough, but I think this will continue to be a popular mode in online shooters moving forward, at least the ones that are designed for Battlefield-style open world combat.

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              April 18, 2018 4:03 PM

              Yeah, I mean, at one point "use hundreds of response to capture a point and hold it", the core of countless multi-player modes over the last decades, was just another new thing.

              BR feels like it could easily become a staple MP mode to me.

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                April 19, 2018 6:11 AM

                As a mode it takes a lot more to develop. You have to seed an entire map with balanced pickups or have a drop method for them. You have to balance those weapons differently than other modes because otherwise some scoped weapons will compeletely dominate. It requires a pretty unique map as well.

                Certainly you can do it, but like horde modes, a quality execution will take a lot of effort. It will probably pay off for those who do it, but it won't ever be like deathmatch or domination type modes. Those are incredibly easy to foist on maps by comparison.

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        April 18, 2018 4:09 PM

        [deleted]

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      April 18, 2018 2:23 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 18, 2018 3:07 PM

        It is completely unnecessary, but if I were gonna play another BR mode, I'd rather it be within a framework that has some decent shooting mechanics like the recent Battlefield games.

        However, Battlefield proper doesn't need more game modes, it needs less. And maps designed specifically for those modes again instead of trying to accommodate 3+ game types and layouts on the same locations and excelling at none of them.

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          April 18, 2018 3:59 PM

          Sooo much this.

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          April 18, 2018 4:01 PM

          I would say Battlefield going forward should be Operations and Conquest. Merge Frontlines and Rush into Operations (just means defensive arty). Maybe throw in team death match whereever on the maps it makes sense. Who cares.

          That's it. No more.

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            April 19, 2018 3:06 AM

            Operations and Conquest are a fad.

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              April 19, 2018 6:08 AM

              True. But, it's their fad and when only the niche remains they will come back for those modes.

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          April 18, 2018 7:35 PM

          The maps are so much the game! Battle Company was designed for Rush and CQ was secondary -- the maps absolutely demonstrate this. Battlefield's Rush maps were generally not as good (few exceptions).

          Stock gameplay should have maps that only fit one mode. Get DLC released that are all themed around another.

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            April 19, 2018 6:08 AM

            This is the beauty of my solution. Design all the maps for operations, but make the last 2 stages of operations be tug of war like in Frontlines with emergency artillery.

            This counter balance of the last stages will make those ends fitting for conquest compared to the converted Rush maps where you have the problem of them all being essentially slanted against one side.

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      April 18, 2018 2:25 PM

      Of all companies, DICE would be stupid not to do this. Though I think making it a game mode for a retail game rather than a standalone F2P game would be a mistake.

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        April 18, 2018 2:29 PM

        They are doing a competitive mode for BF1 as well. I don't get it. The game is not suited to it at all and trying to bend it into that shape is not going to go well. I don't have anything against them doing that kind of game, they just need to actually do it.

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          April 18, 2018 2:33 PM

          They have an engine that is already suited to huge maps and a large number of players. It seems like a merely an incremental jump for them to create a mode like this.

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            April 18, 2018 2:58 PM

            Yeah they seem to have most of the mechanics already in place. I said before it would be an awesome way to start a game of Conquest to have everyone jumping out of planes, which is already in the game!!

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      April 18, 2018 2:56 PM

      Why not? A good gorgeous engine with solid gunplay and a big budget

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      April 18, 2018 3:58 PM

      So if the consoles run BF1 at a 30hz tickrate in a 64-person match, they could probably do battle royale 100p at 20hz maybe? I know PUBG is like 10hz when all 100 people are playing

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        April 18, 2018 4:04 PM

        What does anything you just said mean? Honest question, as I have no idea what a "tick rate" is.

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          April 18, 2018 4:25 PM

          The rate at which the server updates the client. The lower the tick rate the more chances of desynch issues or instances of "i came around a corner and saw no one but died anyway."

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          April 18, 2018 4:37 PM

          afaik it's basically the rate at which the server updates and frequency it communicates with the clients. Higher is better and more responsive, lower can feel laggy and inaccurate.

          And generally as player counts increase, tick rates decrease to balance the server load and bandwidth. But with Battlefield DICE has managed to do 60hz updates with 64 players on PC (although I believe that's just for everything within an imaginary bubble / radius around the player?), so he's wondering if it will feel better than something like PUBG on console which apparently has a very low tick rate?

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            April 18, 2018 7:32 PM

            Interesting. I thought Fortnite felt weird on XBO X compared to PC. Maybe that's why.

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      April 18, 2018 3:59 PM

      Every Dev has to throw their hat into the ring.

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      April 18, 2018 4:19 PM

      Come on people! Is this not the idealized Battle Royale game you had in your mind when this genre started getting popular? A game with an actual budget behind it, a great engine and experienced developers? This is gonna be a step up, people!

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        April 18, 2018 4:43 PM

        Yeah I'm still waiting for the BR game that I can enjoy. PUBG is too janky and I don't like the gunplay. Fortnite building is cheesy and I don't like the gunplay. I want a first person game that's more actiony, the Battlefield engine would be perfect.

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        April 19, 2018 8:16 AM

        maybe if it was a dedicated BR game, but it isnt.

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      April 18, 2018 4:40 PM

      About time

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      April 18, 2018 5:21 PM

      Can't wait for the battle royal game in WW2 with zombies

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        April 18, 2018 6:33 PM

        sounds like a breath of fresh air

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      April 18, 2018 5:22 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 18, 2018 5:23 PM

      I really hope this initiative remains a prototype for now. I'd like to see what DICE could do with a BR game using BF as a foundation, but as a stand-alone game. I absolutely do not want them shoehorning BR into Battlefield proper. Especially not if this upcoming title really is my long-awaited BF1944.

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      April 18, 2018 5:45 PM

      As long as it's a Bad Company have game this could really work. Hot Drops as a BC3 mode.

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      April 18, 2018 6:28 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 18, 2018 7:03 PM

      I said a long time ago BF would be a better engine for such a game. I'll play the shit out of this if it's good.

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        April 19, 2018 1:55 AM

        Also a far more capable developer.

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          April 19, 2018 6:34 AM

          By a long shot.

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            April 21, 2018 2:45 PM

            Yeah I've said that as well. This is the kind of thing that Frostbite was built for.

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      April 18, 2018 9:37 PM

      Of course they are

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      April 19, 2018 2:46 AM

      I do like the DIVE typo

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      April 19, 2018 2:49 AM

      So, will anyone ever do the zoning like the book did? As in specific regions become no-go rather than just a shrinking dome? Or is that too random to be fair?

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