For me the year was 2002, I was in my dorm room, away from my hometown for the first time. I had read on a message board or saw on IGN about a new game called Battlefield 1942 in which you could get in tanks, planes, or boats. If you didn’t want to go about this way you could just be plain ol’ infantry as one of a few classes. This was also a massive multiplayer game with around 50 or so players at a time! The objective of the game was to hold the flags and cause the enemies’ team to run out of tickets before yours do. My roommate and I played the shit out of this game. Eventually my brother started playing it too.
Fast forward to 2005 when I had just bought an Xbox and bought Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for it. Luckily for me it came with a 2 week trial of Xbox Live. I had no intention of playing online but my friend convinced me to give it a try. Playing that brought me back to how much I liked the game. I enjoyed it so much that when I got my Xbox 360 a year later, I bought the game there to play it with a new bunch of people on a more modern system. It was also on this system I played Battlefield 1943 as well as did a really stupid thing with Battlefield 3. During this time there were also the Bad Company games I tried as well as Vietnam but I didn’t take to them.
In 2011 I had just built a new computer and thought what better way to check it out than with Battlefield 3. I also just got an SSD to see how quick it would load on that which was a complete night and day. I also decided to get the game for the Xbox 360 as well because I wanted the maximum amount of people to play with. I also hoped some of my friends would get it too [which they didn’t]. Unfortunately, I didn’t play as much as I wanted to because by this time, we were into the thick of Call of Duty mania. Black Ops was also taking up more of my time and I really loved the way it played. It was quite a different change going back to Battlefield with how different they played.
Now the year is 2013 and I was in line to get either the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One. I got myself an Xbox One as well as Battlefield 4 and playing this game on this new system was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Seeing the world collapse as certain objectives in the game happened was amazing. This was the one my brother and I got really into. I kind of stopped playing Call of Duty at this time and was strictly a Battlefield player and I couldn’t wait until the next one popped up.
Battlefield 1 was announced next in 2016 which took the game back to World War 1 and from all I saw it looked like a completely different departure. Again, my brother and I were totally excited for it and were super happy how well it turned out. Having the change in setting as well as the new weapons and type of map changing events made it super cool. Again, we couldn’t wait, luckily Battlefield was right around the corner set to be released in 2018.
Battlefield V really seemed to have been it for me. I played the game a bit but didn’t really care for it. My brother and I tried it but everything just seemed off about it. The gun play seemed like it was trying to mimic Call of Duty again and the emphasis on making defenses. It wasn’t what I was looking for in a Battlefield game. Also, the World War II setting was still kind of played out at this time. I may have also been bored of first-person shooters because I really didn’t give two shits about Call of Duty as well.
I fell out of love with the Battlefield franchise at this point. Seeing them trying to chase the battle royale didn’t work out for them. The monetization of the game was just something that rubbed me the wrong way. What they did on the gameplay as well as the massive changes they made for Battlefield 2042 just pushed me away hardcore. Also, what EA did to the Battlefront franchise was enough to make me not want to play anymore of their games. Fortunately, it seems like EA heard all of this and decided to show the world Battlefield 6 which was going to release in 2025 and, from what I saw, I couldn’t be more excited!
If you’re still reading this post, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this. Why am I just reiterating a Battlefield Life with no real point. Maybe I’m just reminiscing so that way, in 20 years, I know exactly what was going on in my life for the previous 20 years. Maybe I just want to tell you how I feel the future of Battlefield is going to finally be alright after years of it stagnating. Who knows but you should probably read on.
A beta released for all platforms to try in mid-August 2025, and I finally got my hands on it. Everything felt like it should. The gameplay. The environments. The sounds. The hecticness. The anxiety inducing matches. The Battlefield Moments. They were all there! I couldn’t be more excited! I told my brother who was also on board. I was going to play a modern Battlefield game on a new generation, Xbox Series X, and the anticipation was building and building! Up until September 29, 2025.
So, this is why I’m writing it. I was so excited for this game, and I had preordered it [which I don’t do anymore] and I had even done the Premium edition because I felt they finally deserved it. On this day it was reported that EA announced they were going to be acquired by a consortium of venture capitalists PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55 billion in a leveraged buyout. Normally I don’t care if companies get bought or sold but when I saw this, I had a crisis of conscience. I could not condone with my own money this sale to people who I feel was responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed in the modern day. After some thinking, I cancelled my preorders and vowed to never touch the game.
Even though it’s only been a month, and I have really been tempted by the game based on the videos I’ve seen since, I still cannot support them because of this. It really breaks my heart not just because it’s a game I was looking forward to but because of how long the Battlefield series has been in my life. From a teenager away from home to a middle-aged man with a home of his own. Now, because of the ever-creeping monster that is corporate greed and a “fuck your feelings” movement, Battlefield is dead to me and will probably never be resuscitated. Thank you, Electronic Arts. Thank you so much for killing something that I love but I guess that’s why you went to PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners cause it’s what they’re best at.