EA Willing To Experiment With Free-to-Play Battle Royale Titles Following Fortnite Success

You can rake in a boatload of money with a "free" game these days: all you need to do is look at the insane popularity and over a billion dollars in revenue that Fortnite has generated for proof. EA is one of the biggest game publishers on the planet and Battlefield is one of its biggest franchises. Battlefield V is coming, and it was confirmed in late May that the game would use a WWII setting. 

One of the big questions that have been burning in the minds of gamers looking forward to Battlefield V is if the anticipated battle royale mode for the game would be free like Fortnite and PUBG. The answer to that question is an unequivocal no. EA has said that Battlefield V will have a battle royale mode, but that mode will only be available for gamers who purchase the game.

Battle royal will be one of the multiplayer game modes and promises the Battlefield archetypes that gamers are used to with the franchise mixed with what gamers expect from a battle royale title with a bit extra tossed in. EA's CEO Andrew Wilson recently commented directly on the battle royale mode of the game.

Wilson said, "We’re continuing to build and look to deliver innovative multiplayer components to that game. And as we come into October, we’ll be talking more about this, but you should expect that we’ll be delivering a full featured game that features all of the traditional components of a Battlefield game in addition to new modalities of play including Battle Royale and delivered in a way that we believe we want to play which is not just what you get at launch but in the context of a live service over time. And we’re excited about what we’re able to do there."

Even though EA isn’t willing to go free-to-play for Battlefield, the company is thinking about a free-to-play standalone game. EA's CFO Blake Jorgensen said, "I would say we’re interested in possibly experimenting with a essentially free-to-play standalone game that might be in a shooter genre or another genre, but I don’t think that’s how we’re looking at the Battlefield stuff right now. But you’ll see more to come on that in the coming months and years."