EA and DICE switched things up with Battlefield 5 and the way they would roll out content for the shooter, choosing to adopt a live service approach by doling out content in bits and pieces over a prolonged period of time. March saw a major new update, which introduced Firestorm – the battle royale mode developed by Criterion – and as per EA, it saw a very strong launch.
At their quarterly financial results meeting, EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson said that Firestorm has been the biggest Battlefield live service launch ever, resulting in a 60 per cent week over week growth for the game’s player base.
“The DICE and Criterion teams built the biggest map in franchise history and brought signature elements of Battlefield gameplay into this 64-player survival mode,” said Wilson. “In the first week after launch, Firestorm became the biggest Battlefield live service event ever, with nearly 60% growth in active players week over week.”
In terms of numbers, the battle royale mode “brought over a million people back into the game”, as per COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen.
EA currently has more plans for content updates for Battlefield 5 following the new service model as well, and will be revealing some of these plans at their EA Play event during E3-time in June.
“We’re currently in the middle of our third chapter of live service updates to Battlefield V, with more chapters set to begin in the summer and fall, each bringing more of what fans are looking for with new maps and missions,” said Wilson. “We’ll showcase some of the great new experiences coming to Battlefield V at EA Play.”
Battlefield 5 is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
