Battlefield Studios – the group of studios working on Battlefield 6 – have announced that the Battlefield Labs playtest is returning. In a new community update, the studios have also confirmed that it is once more opening up sign-ups for Battlefield Labs, through which more players can join the program to help Battlefield Studios with testing out various aspects of the upcoming shooter.
This latest iteration of Battlefield Labs will focus on testing out a number of features for Battlefield 6, including the Portal and server browser. An early implementation of Portal will be opened up in the playtest through the Community tab, with the focus of testing revolving around accessibility and UI clarity. However, it is worth noting that not all Portal features will be available in the playtest; players will not get to try out the Custom Community Experience-related features.
Rather, the playtest will focus on hosting, and how player-owned servers can be used through predefined shortcodes. The testing will also involve changing server descriptions, selecting tags, and how other players can join player-owned servers. All in all, the testing will have two key focuses: Hosting and Customisation, and Joining and Experiencing.
When it comes to gameplay, the Battlefield Labs playtest will also be a playground for checking how combined arms will work when it comes to game balance. To this, the playtest will feature two new maps – Operation Firestorm and Mirak Valley. Combined arms, for context, means maps that feature a combination of infantry-based gameplay as well as large-scale vehicular gameplay. Through this playtest, Battlefield Studios will focus on fine tuning various balance aspects, from vehicle damage and health, to gadget usability and balancing.
The announcement comes shortly after Battlefield 6 wrapped up its two open betas. The studios working on the game had revealed some details on what kind of feedback they got from the two open betas, and how they will be addressing this feedback in time for the full game’s launch. Among other things, weapons are going to get a balancing pass, with the M87A1 shotgun getting re-balanced to now require more pellets to secure a kill.
The studios also wrote about how they will tackle the question of player numbers for the various game modes available in Battlefield 6. For instance, Rush will focus on lower player counts, with the large-scale equivalent instead being Breakthrough, which can support up to 64 players, depending on the map. High player-count versions of Rush can also be played through Portal. The shooter will also include options for low player-count game modes, with Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Squad Deathmatch focusing on 16-player matches.
Battlefield 6 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on October 10. Leading up to the shooter’s release, EA has kicked off the Road to Battlefield 6 series of updates for Battlefield 2042, which involve new content coming to the game as well as rewards that can then be carried over into the upcoming shooter.
For more details about Battlefield 6, check out our thoughts about the open betas.
