Battlefield 6 Could Be a Next-Gen Exclusive for Consoles

Electronic Arts’ upcoming Battlefield title might be released as PS5 and Xbox Series X exclusive, skipping current-gen consoles, one leaker suggests. This information comes from Tom Henderson, also known as TheLongSensation in the gaming community, a popular and trustworthy leaker for Call of Duty and Battlefield games. Over on Twitter, he wrote that he has not heard anything about it coming to PS4 or Xbox One. EA could also push for a day-one Xbox Game Pass release for Battlefield 6 to boost player numbers from the service’s existing subscribers.

In other news, I still have yet to hear anything concrete that #BATTLEFIELD will come to past gen consoles. Theory – It indicates to me that it probably won’t and the biggest reason #BATTLEFIELD will come to the Xbox Game Pass on day 1 is to boost up player numbers.“

The idea of making Battlefield 6 a next-gen exclusive lines up with what EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in the company’s quarterly earnings report. Wilson mentioned that the game is specifically developed to “take full advantage” of PS5 and Xbox Series X’s computing power. It will also feature maps with an “unprecedented scale” compared to any previous Battlefield titles. In the report, Wilson then added that the official reveal trailer for Battlefield 6 should come out sometime this Spring, and the game is planned to be released for the 2021 holiday season.

Previously, Henderson also said that Battlefield 6 will be released with many new features, including a free-to-play mode, PC and console cross-play, 128 player maps, and a huge overhaul to the Levolution environmental destruction system.

While the Frostbite Engine can still deliver jaw-dropping in-game visuals on PS4 and Xbox One, judging from performance test videos on YouTube, it’s pretty clear that current-gen consoles struggle to maintain a consistent, silky-smooth frame rate. Focusing their development on specific hardware — especially since PS5 and Xbox Series X are using similar Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architecture — could also avoid performance issues like what happened to Cyberpunk 2077.

Still, what do you personally think? Does this mean it’s time to upgrade to next-gen consoles (which unfortunately still hard to find) or you hope the leak turns out to be wrong and EA is still releasing Battlefield 6 for current-gen consoles? Tell us in the comments below.