The latest in a long line of layoffs and budget cuts affecting the gaming industry comes by way of EA, who has just been confirmed to be laying off developers across all four studios that worked on Battlefield 6—those being Criterion, Dice, Motive, and Ripple Effect. This is according to a report by IGN, although it's unclear how many employees will be affected by the layoffs. Battlefield 6 has seemingly been one of the most successful Battlefield game so far, allegedly topping 7 million unit sales in the first three days following the October 2025 launch, making it a big revenue driver for record profits in Q3 2025. As of the time of writing, Battlefield 6 has peaked at 747,440 concurrent players on Steam, with daily concurrent player counts peaking at around 65,000-70,000 players. Part of EA's justification for the layoffs is "feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs," so perhaps part of the reason for the layoffs is players moving from Battlefield 6 to the free-to-play Battlefield RedSec.

When asked for comment by GameIndustry.biz, EA said that "We've made select changes within our Battlefield organization to better align our teams around what matters most to our community. Battlefield remains one of our biggest priorities, and we're continuing to invest in the franchise, guided by player feedback and insights from Battlefield Labs." This round of layoffs comes mere weeks after EA laid off an unknown number of developers at Full Circle, the studio behind Skate. These layoffs are seemingly part of EA's plan to cut costs following a recent acquisition by a consortium of investors in late 2025.

Marathon, a new extraction shooter in development at Bungie, has had a rough time of it, to say the least. The game was shelved ahead of its original September 23 release, with vague promises of a 2025 fiscal year release, it was found that the game's art team had unceremoniously lifted artwork from an independent artist. Critical early hands-on tests of Marathon, which described the game as "promising, but missing something," with SkillUp commenting that the game lacked depth provided by its would-be competitors. Now, however, Sony has provided an update for those still eager to try out Marathon, promising an early 2026 launch date. Specifically, Sony and Bungie aim to have Marathon launch by March 2026.

It's been something of a hot year for shooters, especially team-based shooters, with games like Battlefield RedSec and Arc Raiders dominating Steam charts in recent weeks. Arc Raiders is especially relevant, since it is also a paid game and happens to be in the same genre as Marathon. Previous rumors indicated that Marathon would be available from $40, putting it directly in the line of fire of Arc Raiders, which costs $39.99 on Steam. Leaks about the most recent Marathon play tests have been sparse, so it's difficult to know if the game has been improved significantly, but all indications suggest it will be facing an uphill battle.

Not even a day after the launch of the free-to-play battle royale Battlefield RedSec, the game has already experienced its first controversy, with wave of negative reviews dropping RedSec's review rating to "Mostly Negative" on Steam, with a mere 38% of the reviews recommending the game. While the base gameplay of RedSec has apparently sat well with many gamers, with many praising the destruction mechanics and the large open maps, many players seem rather upset about a number of issues largely related to how the free-to-play game interacts with and compares to the main Battlefield 6 game. The main take-away is that gamers who bought Battlefield 6 seem to feel like they are being pressured into playing RedSec and that it appears as though DICE and EA invested significantly more time and resources into RedSec than Battlefield 6.

One recurring complaint is that Battlefield 6's weekly challenges are tied to game modes in RedSec, while other players seem upset that there is more variety in RedSec when it comes to vehicle options. The same appears to be true for the map and game design in RedSec, which features a larger map than Battlefield 6—even EA called the RedSec map the largest in any Battlefield game. That size offers players more freedom and perhaps even strategic advantages. "Oh wow a nice big map with lots of POIs and flanks. If only we could get something like this for the main game," reads one review. Complaints also abound, both on Reddit and in the Steam reviews, about bugs and the game's lack of polish, but those issues are likely to be resolved in time. Despite the complaints, Battlefield RedSec is currently eighth in SteamDB's top sales charts, with the Season 1 battle pass coming in fifth place.

jAs predicted by the early leaks and rumors surrounding the new game, EA has officially announced Battlefield RedSec as a free-to-play battle royale game "built on Battlefield's iconic DNA," with the new battle royale shooter launching on PC via Steam, Epic Games, and the EA App and on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Players will face off in 100-player battle royale (in 25 teams of four or 50 teams of two), squad mode, and a mission-based elimination mode. The game is set in Fort Lyndon, a government testing facility in California that has become a war zone, and the biggest Battlefield map to date. As you might expect of an urban setting, the battlefield varies from tight interior spaces to wide open city streets, and much of the environment in RedSec is destructible.

Battlefield RedSec calls for, at minimum, an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 5 2600, an AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, or Intel Arc A380, and 16 GB of RAM. As is increasingly the case with multiplayer games these days, RedSec also requires that players have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled, effectively locking out any potential gamers on Linux, including the Valve Steam Deck. RedSec also gives creators access to Portal, the updated Battlefield UGC and custom game creator, replete with all the vehicles and weapons from Battlefield RedSec.

It has long been rumored that Battlefield 6 would be accompanied by a new battle royale game mode to replace the aging Firestorm, however there has been no official announcement of a PVP battle royale mode two weeks after the new shooter launched. New information from online data miners, however, now suggests that this radio silence may be intentional. According to @ModernWarzone on X, DICE and EA will launch the free-to-play Battlefield: RedSec battle royale game mode on October 28. The launch strategy here is rather curious, since EA apparently won't release any trailers or marketing material ahead of the launch, making it essentially a shadow drop alongside the Battlefield 6 Season 1 update.

Aside from the official name, which is getting heavily criticized online, the free-to-play battle royale game mode will closely follow the same formula as its predecessor. Previous supposed leaks from the same source indicated that Battlefield: RedSec would feature a highly destructible map with 100 players competing for first prize, and that matches would last "around 25 minutes." Of course, these rumors are from earlier this year, so they should be taken with a grain of salt. Internal Battlefield Labs update changelogs also leaked earlier this month, confirming that RedSec players will each have two slots for armor plates and that the battle royale game mode will feature both ground vehicles and helicopters for aerial combat, with the requisite countermeasures also available for players. Players will also be able to talk to one-another with proximity chat.