Battlefield 6 will feature open and closed weapon playlists at launch

Ahead of the open beta for Battlefield 6, one of the big debates between the community and the developers focused on what to do with the class system: Should Battlefield 6 follow tradition and lock specific weapons behind their corresponding classes, or should everyone be able to choose their armaments independently of class?

EA opted to offer playlists with both systems in the open beta to collect data, which it has now evaluated. The result: Battlefield 6 will feature both types of playlists at launch.

From what EA has revealed in its latest blog post on the topic, key metrics didn’t differentiate all too much between the two playlist types. The pick rates for classes differed by 2% at most, kills per hour were higher by a mere 0.2 in Conquest and 0.1 in Breakthrough during games with the open system, and match duration increased by 3.75% under the closed system, corresponding with a 2 to 3% higher revive rate in these matches compared to their open system counterparts.

“There was not a single dominant weapon archetype, and we observed a consistent and well-distributed pick rate between them. This balance shows that even with different playlist types, players explored a wide variety of options without one class standing out above the rest,” EA wrote. 

However, it has to be noted that an open beta may not be representative of the post-launch behavior in this regard — once a meta establishes itself as it usually does in any shooter, things could look radically different.

EA also stated that the majority of players who tried both playlist types decided to stick with the open system. “This reinforces our belief that Open Weapons is the right path forward for Battlefield 6,” the company concluded.

However, recognizing that some players did strongly prefer the traditional, class-based system, the developers decided to support both types via separate playlists.

EA also revealed the Season 1 roadmap for Battlefield 6 ahead of launch.

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