Battlefield Will Keep 'Every Other Year' Release Schedule With Live Service Support

Electronic Arts' (EA) Battlefield franchise will return to sporadic releases with a key focus on live support for all its titles, according to the company's CEO.

The confirmation comes from a recent EA earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of the year made on Wednesday, Aug. 4. When asked about the current state of Battlefield releases and whether or not the franchise will return to releasing a new title "every other year," Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, responded by saying "I think that is our orientation."

"What we're doing for the launch of this game is really revolutionizing and reinventing what - all our epic scale warfare is in the context of gameplay," he said.

The question was likely sparked by the extra year Battlefield 2042 is taking in development. Typically, the games are staggered only two years apart, making this most recent installation unusual. Wilson's response, however, reassured those on the call that the franchise had never left its "every other year" model.

The company will be focusing on live service, as well, alongside its major releases. Wilson highlighted Battlefield Portal as a community-driven platform meant to "lean into user-generated content" and "drive deep long-term engagement in the game."

"This really forms the foundation for what we believe the future of a live service around Battlefield is," he said, "We're really focused on 365-day engagement in the franchise at a platform level across any device that consumers may want to play on."

"Trust that the team is working very hard on this, and they have some very unique ideas about what we can continue to do to create this as a long-term interaction with our consumers," Blake Jorgensen, EA CFO, added, noting that they wanted to "build a long-term relationship" with the game's fans.

Battlefield 2042 is slated for release in October with an open beta starting the month before, in September.

A transcript for the entire call detailing other information about Battlefield as well as other major EA properties—like Apex Legends, for example—can be found on SeekingAlpha.