Electronic Arts — developer and publisher of games like Madden and EA Football Club — has announced an extensive community testing initiative for their latest and thus far untitled next Battlefield game. If successful, this project could mean a much more player-focused testing path for multiplayer games before launch.
Dubbed “Battlefield Labs,” the stated goal is to start the testing and community ideation phase while the game is in pre-alpha and let their wants and needs shape the project. By carefully monitoring feedback, the teams developing Battlefield are poised to react quickly before the game comes out and, in a worst case scenario that has been seen before with Battlefield, fail to catch on with players out of the gate. This lets the most hardcore Battlefield fans take a hand in shaping the game to what they want it to be.
“I’ve been playing Battlefield long before I joined the team,” says Vince Zampella, Head of Respawn Studio & Group GM for EA Studios Organization. “This game has so much potential. To find that potential, with us being pre-alpha, now is the time to test the experiences our teams have been building for our upcoming launch. Battlefield Labs empowers our teams to do that.”
Battlefield Labs is itself a piece of software that acts as a portal for an ever-changing testing ground. While structurally similar to things like Early Access or open betas, the devil is in the details. The more hands-on structure with no buy-in so early in development both lets Battlefield Studios keep a lid on the in-development nature of the game while also letting players experience it from a nascent position.
Players can sign up for Battlefield Labs, or just keep track of the way development is changing and evolving, at the Battlefield Labs website.