It’s been quite a roller coaster for Battlefield 2042, which launched in an embarrassing state back in 2021, but managed to scratch and claw its way back to a solid place one update at a time. Well, it seems the Battlefield 2042 story is finally coming to an end, as EA and DICE have announced major support for the game will cease at the end the currently-in-progress Season 7. Maintenance updates and reruns of past events will still happen, but no more major seasonal content is coming.
“While we’ve enjoyed and are proud of creating these seasons of additional content for Battlefield 2042, it is now necessary for us to turn from the present to the future. What this ultimately means is that Season 7 will serve as the final season for Battlefield 2042. After Season 7 concludes, we will continue to support the game with new in-game challenges, events, modes, and of course, ongoing maintenance, but we are moving away from delivering official seasons.”
Looking forward, Montreal-based Motive Studios will be joining DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect Studios in developing a new “Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer experiences and single-player.” A press release from Motive specifically notes that the directors of the well-received Dead Space remake, Philippe Ducharme and Roman Campos-Oriola, will be heading up the new Motive Battlefield division.
The announcements also make it fairly clear that Motive will be focusing on the story-driven single-player Battlefield experience. EA previously had Halo vet Marcus Lehto working on Battlefield story content at his Seattle-based studio Ridgeline Games, but earlier this year Lehto left EA, which promptly shut down Ridgeline Games. It definitely seems like Motive is stepping in to provide the cinematic single-player content Ridgeline was previously working on.
Despite Motive being sucked into the Battlefield vortex, they’ve also confirmed they’re still working on their anticipated Iron-Man game, as Motive has the capacity to run two teams in tandem. They say they’ve made “excellent progress” on Iron Man, recently hitting a major internal development milestone.
What do you think? Will Motive be a solid boost to whatever EA is planning for the Battlefield franchise? I think they’ll do well in the role, they always put in solid work, but I'll admit I’m kind of sad Dead Space is probably going back on the shelf because of this.
