EA’s $400M gamble could make or break the dying Battlefield franchise

After Battlefield 2042’s catastrophic launch, the launch of Battlefield 6 has the gaming world on edge. Having already overshot the game’s $400M budget, this game has to succeed for the series to stand a chance of continuing.

EA has set its expectations high, too, with the massive goal to hit 100M players. For context, that’s more than the entire rest of the Battlefield franchise put together. That’s an whole series of games, selling under 90M copies put together, that EA expects its next instalment to beat.

Shooting for the moon is great, but without a realistic outlook, EA could be dooming the franchise. Sure, if Battlefield 6 achieves 100M sales at the alleged $80 price point, the total revenue would be a whopping $8 billion. 

But if the game’s astronomical budget is reliant on this level of success, the Battlefield series is setting itself up for failure.

Battlefield 2042’s disappointing launch state back in 2021 has led to many fans holding off on their pre-orders until they know Battlefield 6 will be worth it, so the series can’t afford to launch in anything but a perfect state. Therefore, any success is likely to be a slow burn, rather than an overnight phenomenon.

Let’s hope EA sticks the landing on this one, or it’ll be curtains for Battlefield, and spell disaster for the AAA premium games industry as a whole.