EA plans to launch it in spring 2026The next Battlefield The game is reportedly a new entry in the Battlefield series, but the development of this new game, codenamed "Glacier," has been plagued by development difficulties and a significant budget overrun, with the internal team even worried about whether some of its content would be well-received by players.
Ars Technica reported thatEA originally set extremely high goals for "Glacier", hoping to compete with "Call of Duty" and even "Fortnite", and planned to attract more than 1 million players.
However, compared to Battlefield 1, the peak of the Battlefield series, the number of online players during the same period only reached 1 million, and Battlefield 3000 only attracted about 2042 million people, which is obviously still significantly lower than the expected goals of EA executives.
The industry believes that the massive player base of Fortnite and Call of Duty is due not only to the longevity of their franchises but also to the widespread appeal of their free-to-play models. Therefore, EA plans to design "Glacier" as a free-to-play game, adding a Battle Royale mode and a roughly six-hour single-player campaign to reach a new user base.
However, such planning seems to face many difficulties in actual implementation.
Ridgeline Studios, responsible for developing the single-player campaign, closed in 2024, ending two years of development. Due to limited resources, Ridgeline struggled to meet the ambitious development targets set by EA, ultimately handing the project over to EA studios including Criterion, DICE, and Motive.
After restarting development, the single-player campaign has yet to reach the alpha testing stage, making it the most delayed part of the entire "Glacier" project.
With its ever-expanding development scope, intense development pressures, and frequent personnel changes, Glacier has become the most expensive Battlefield game ever. The development budget for 2023 alone reached $4 million, and there are rumors that the actual cost is far higher than this, but EA has not disclosed the exact amount.
As to whether "Glacier" can be launched as scheduled in the spring of 2026, there are still doubts. Some insiders even admitted that if it is launched as scheduled, some content and functions may need to be deleted to catch up with the target schedule.
The Battlefield series used to be known for its large-scale multiplayer battlefields and military simulation experience. However, in the market environment where the recently launched Battlefield 2042 is facing polarized reviews and the strong rise of free-to-play competitors, whether EA can truly revive the series' momentum by betting a high budget and resources from multiple studios this time is still unknown.
