LogInRizible, whom 80 Level can confirm is indeed a former DICE employee, provided some clarification about their Bluesky thread, helping us separate facts from educated guesses.
Following the commercial and reputational underperformance of Battlefield V and Battlefield 2042, it became clear to everyone that DICE and Electronic Arts would need to rethink their approach to the legendary FPS series if they wanted to prevent it from becoming a thing of the past.
The extent of the changes to their strategy has recently been unveiled by a former DICE employee, known as Rizible, who shared a wealth of information about the studio's inner dealings and speculated about the upcoming Battlefield 6 and plans for the franchise as a whole.
DICE
To address the elephant in the room upfront: although the report was shared anonymously, 80 Level can confirm that Rizible is indeed a former DICE employee with knowledge of the studio's behind-the-scenes operations, however, as per the author's request, their identity will remain undisclosed. We did manage to contact Rizible directly for further discussion about the thread, and they generously provided additional insights to help distinguish concrete facts from assumptions.
The author shared that the thread in question was intended as a way to vent frustration about EA's Investors Day 2024 presentation, embedded above, which they described as speaking "into the void," given their Bluesky account had only around 10 followers at the time. Rizible clarified that the insights shared in the thread include a combination of facts, educated guesses, and speculations, so despite the author's personal experience with DICE, these claims should be taken with a grain of salt.
In the thread, the ex-employee stated that 98% of the people who worked on previous Battlefield games have since left EA, however, Rizible clarified that this figure was a hyperbole rather than a definitive percentage, meant to emphasize the significant departure of senior leaders and veterans from the studio and franchise.
Most of these individuals have joined other studios, particularly Embark Studios, which attracted many artists, engine developers, R&D specialists, and creative talents such as Magnus Nordin, Rob Runesson, Stefan Strandberg, Patrick Söderlund, and Aleks Grondal, as well as TTK Games, founded in 2023 by Battlefield's former Creative Director Lars Gustavsson and later joined by Daniel Berlin, Vidar Nygren, and Peter Hoyles. The list also includes other game studios with a presence in Stockholm like Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Fatshark, Toca Boca, Avalanche, Paradox, Starbreeze, and others.
Rizible also mentioned that Matt Webster, the former head of Criterion, left after the launch of NFS Unbound to start his own studio, Fuse Games, which has attracted several senior-level employees from Criterion. This is notable because, besides DICE, Criterion is now also involved in the production of Battlefield, alongside Ripple Effect and Motive, meaning there may be even fewer senior talents working on Battlefield 6.
The thread continues by suggesting that EA's plan is to make Battlefield more akin to the Call of Duty series, which involves releasing a new AAA-priced game annually, with a limited single-player campaign, and packed with "seasons, battle passes, and live-service slop." As explained by Rizible, this is not a confirmed direction but rather an educated guess based on a plan EA had in place during their time at the company, and it could have already been altered by higher-ups since then.
"When I was still at DICE, the plan was for DICE, Ripple, and Ridgleline (the now-defunct Seattle studio) to work on the franchise together, with annual releases as a long-term goal (not an immediate goal)," Rizible told 80 Level. "Ridgeline would do single-player, DICE would do multiplayer, and Ripple would work on some sort of F2P Battle Royale (or similar experience). Industrial Toys would work on BF mobile separately since EA manages mobile tiles through a different part of their organization.
The original, three studio plan had a long-term roadmap to go from a 3-year dev cycle, down to 2, then eventually to annual releases. There are numerous, perceived, business advantages to the CoD model. Given that Vince and specifically Byron come from Activision/COD, it seems logical to me that this is still their eventual goal. Personally, I don't think they'll get to annual releases for several years."
Moreover, the former employee discussed Battlefield 6's potential release window, predicting that the next game might arrive in October 2025. "Logically, it's been 4 years since 2042's launch. Given EA's massive reorg and providing extra dev time for the COVID pandemic, 2025 seems like it's the right time for the next game, given the franchise release history," Rizible noted.
The author further speculated that the next mainline game after BF6 – let's call it Battlefield 7 – will not be released in 2026. This is based on the previously mentioned three-studio roadmap, which had a gradual ramp-up to annual releases, and it's likely that the current four-studio roadmap follows a similar pattern.
"If things work out, I think they'll eventually ship annual titles, but no idea how long that will take," commented the author. "EA loves the idea of annual releases because CoD has proven it is extremely lucrative and EA knows firsthand about the value of annual launches due to their annual sports games."
In the end, Rizible recommended that Battlefield fans "temper their expectations," as the series has entered a new era with new people at the helm, whose philosophy differs from that of DICE's previous team, and whether that's a good thing or not depends on one's own personal perspective.
"To be clear, I have low faith in EA leadership treating the BF franchise with much love or respect. I don't have any bad feelings towards all of the people at the EA studios who are making the game," Rizible told us. "BF is a franchise I've loved since high school, and I get pissed at the EA leadership who, I feel, are not making good decisions for the franchise and the fans. While I have low expectations for the next game (due to bad leadership), I truly hope that the next game will be a hit and revitalize things."
DICE
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