Electronic Arts has confirmed that the next Battlefield title will arrive by March 31, 2026, at the latest, and a full public reveal is scheduled for this summer. The announcement came as part of EA's most recent financial report and shows the company's confidence in the franchise's future. EA CEO Andrew Wilson described the upcoming game as "a pivotal step in defining our next generation of blockbuster entertainment." His comments signal the publisher's intention to rebuild goodwill after fan disappointment with Battlefield 2042. Closed testing began in March under strict non‑disclosure agreements, but a significant amount of gameplay footage has nonetheless appeared online. In response, developer DICE announced plans to expand the trial in May by inviting additional participants from Europe, North America and Asia. Players who wish to join the tests may still register through the official Battlefield website.

During this extended phase, DICE will concentrate on fine‑tuning fundamental gameplay systems. Key focus areas include balancing weapon archetypes, adjusting damage values, refining movement mechanics and pacing the flow of combat. The team will also continue to evaluate destructible objects—such as barricades, vehicles and buildings—across multiple map environments. These tests aim to ensure that world destruction feels both dramatic and fair, allowing players to use terrain changes to their tactical advantage. Further community updates will delve into the roles of individual classes and the full scope of the all‑out War Mode later this year. EA has adopted a more transparent development process than it did for its previous release, sharing frequent insights and responding directly to player feedback. Four internal studios—collectively known as Battlefield Studios—are collaborating on this project. DICE is leading the multiplayer experience, Motive is creating both multiplayer maps and single‑player missions, Criterion is focused on the solo campaign and Ripple Effect is developing a brand‑new series component.

In February, we announced Battlefield Labs as our most ambitious community collaboration in franchise history to validate the future of Battlefield. Today, we'll update you on our initial learnings and how we'll continue to scale testing into the future.

Across our four initial play sessions with a small group of core Battlefield players across Europe and North America, we've completed thousands of hours of gameplay, had hundreds of thousands of player spawns, and seen over a million environmental objects destroyed, including walls, windows, crates, and buildings your squad crashed the helicopter into.

During yesterday's "Battlefield Labs" announcement, Electronic Arts revealed the full extent of its international multi-team development setup—dubbed "Battlefield Studios." According to their recent presentation, franchise originator—DICE (Stockholm)—is working alongside Ripple Effect (formerly DICE Los Angeles), Motive (Montreal) and Criterion (Guildford). EA's British studio is best known for its past work—most notably (going back nearly twenty-five years ago) the Burnout series and newer Need for Speed titles. The Surrey-based outfit appears to be completely devoted to working on the next Battlefield entry's single-player component—older press releases hinted about a new Need for Speed project. Around autumn 2023, Vince Zampella (Battlefield franchise overseer) announced that the majority of Criterion's team had shifted over to working on a next-gen Battlefield title, while a smaller "core group" would: "continue on what's next for Need for Speed."

Almost a year ago, Criterion and EA celebrated the Need for Speed franchise's thirtieth anniversary—a press release focused mainly on roadmapped content for Need for Speed Unbound (2022). The game was updated with a final chunk of post-release content last November. Eurogamer took it upon themselves to investigate Criterion's current internal formation, given that support duties have concluded on the NFS Unbound project. The online publication received a response from EA's top-most Battlefield developer. Zampella said in a statement to Eurogamer: "the Need for Speed team at Criterion are joining their colleagues working on Battlefield...As a company, it was important to us to take the last year to listen to our Need for Speed community and use their feedback to create content for Unbound...With an increased understanding of what our players want in a Need for Speed experience, we plan to bring the franchise back in new and interesting ways."

Today, the storied Battlefield franchise known for uncompromising all-out warfare and world-class gameplay for over two decades, announced the most ambitious community testing program in franchise history - Battlefield Labs. The work on the next Battlefield experience is entering a critical phase in development that will benefit from collaboration with the community like never before.

Sign Up for Battlefield Labs Are Now Open
The first phase of Battlefield Labs testing will go live in the coming weeks, and sign up to players is available now at battlefield.com/labs. Initial tests will include an invited group of players and servers located in Europe and North America ahead of plans to expand invitees and server locations in the future.

Surprise! We're still here, and not just here - we have a whole year's worth of content coming to you! NFS turns 30 this year, and with that huge legacy, we couldn't stand idle. However, this year will be a bit different from the previous one. Because here's the thing—the NFS legacy signifies different things to each and every one of you. Some of you were there at the start of it all on Road and Track. Some of you will remember taking on the Eastsiders in Olympic City or smashing your way through the Blacklist in Rockport. Or you might have started playing more recently. Hustling by day and risking it all by night in Palm City. No matter your memory, we all have a shared love of NFS, and we want to build new memories over the next 12 months.

But, we'll be honest and admit we can't build everything everyone wants right now, but we can decide together what NFS should be in the future. Our vision is that through our second year of live service, you can, for the first time, begin to play the ultimate NFS experience in one place. Your feedback and gameplay will help shape the future of this iconic franchise. As you play, we will be listening, observing and reacting to the things you want to see and those you don't. It's an approach that we're calling Kaizen.

Hi Everyone, today I'd like to share that the talented team at Criterion Games will be joining EA Entertainment. Criterion has a rich history in gaming, having worked on Battlefield, Battlefront, Burnout, and of course, Need for Speed. I'm thrilled to have a studio with such pedigree join the studios I oversee. As we've said before, we're all-in on Battlefield. Today, Criterion is added to our world-class Battlefield studios dedicated to ushering in a new era for the franchise.

The majority of the team will be working alongside DICE, Ripple Effect, and Ridgeline that are led by Byron Beede, GM of Battlefield. Criterion's experience with Battlefield, our technology and building engaging experiences will have an immediate positive impact as we continue to work on Battlefield 2042, and as we continue pre-production on a connected Battlefield Universe. There is no better studio to join us on this journey and I couldn't be more excited.

EA via its EA play event has teased next-gen graphics and gameplay from upcoming titles on its publishing label. The games showcase work in progress for next-generation games that seem to be set in three well-known franchises, with Motive, who has just recently developed Star Wars Squadron in conjunction with Lucasfilm, seemingly presenting the only new IP.

From Criterion, a new Need for Speed game is teased, with particular emphasis being put on both detail level on cars and reflections, as well as the absence of any loading times granted by next-gen hardware. Bioware's showcase seems like a tease for Dragon Age 4 - there is a distinct fantasy look to the video, and I believe I've seen those red colors in previous entries' red lyrium crystals. DICE, of course, showcased a new Battlefield game, which exceptional fidelity on character models, and what seems like truly epic battles with hundreds of soldiers on-screen at the same time. Lastly, Motive seems to be developing a physics-based game where environment interactivity is key. Models used seem like a mash-up between fantasy, sci-fi and modern-day, so it's difficult to pen exactly what we're looking at. Catch the video teaser after the break.