EA locks and loads 'Battlefield 6' to take on 'Call of Duty' before going private

By Zaheer Kachwala

(Reuters) -Electronic Arts is betting on the latest "Battlefield" title to do what the last one could not - restore the franchise's reputation and loosen the dominance of "Call of Duty" on the first-person shooter genre.

Releasing on Friday, "Battlefield 6" will test the ability of EA's intellectual property to draw gamers, weeks after it agreed to a $55 billion sale to a Saudi-backed investor group, a deal fueled by its prized gaming portfolio.

EA's other shooters, including "Apex Legends", "Titanfall" and "Star Wars Battlefront", have lost steam, forcing it to rely on one of its best-known franchises to attract consumers who are sticking with proven titles amid tariff-led economic worries.

"Battlefield 6 is a make-or-break release," said Joost van Dreunen, games professor at NYU's Stern School of Business.

"For EA to really get through this coming period, it needs a solid win, and Battlefield 6 has to deliver in a kind of tough time in the industry and in a very cluttered category."

EARLY PROMISE

The title gathered more than 521,000 concurrent PC players in its beta test in August - a franchise record that surpassed "Call of Duty's" all-time peak of around 491,000 players, according to Steam charts data.

The test also averaged 10.6 million daily active users, peaking at 12 million in its first weekend, according to cross-platform data from Newzoo compiled for Reuters.

Gamers have been attracted by "Battlefield 6's" modern-era setting, large-scale open combat and advanced graphics. The title was developed by four in-house studios and led by "Call of Duty" veterans Vince Zampella and Byron Beede.

The wealth of experience is meant to avoid the missteps that doomed "Battlefield 2042", which EA admits underperformed. The 2021 title was launched with technical issues and resulted in a drop in player base within months.

Critics have said the game strayed too far from the franchise's identity: dropping a single-player campaign and the traditional four-class system for specialists who could use any weapon or gadget, which erased clear team roles and balance.

"Battlefield 6" has brought back the class system.

"The biggest complaint was just around that specialized character system, and it just was not that Battlefield-esque and the core players didn't resonate with that," said Wedbush Securities analyst Alicia Reese.

CALL OF DUTY FATIGUE

Aiding EA is also the gamer fatigue with "Call of Duty", after 21 mainline entries and around two decades of annual releases.

The franchise, published by Microsoft-owned Activision-Blizzard, has sold more than half-a-billion copies, but its rising focus on in-game monetization has irked some fans.

The revenue strategy of "Call of Duty" has leaned on selling cosmetic bundles and licensing pop-culture tie-ins, from Snoop Dogg and Nicki Minaj to Beavis and Butt-Head skins, which many say dilutes the gritty realism of the series.

"Black Ops 7", the latest title in the series releasing in November, has faced backlash on social media. Its initial reveal trailer, launched on August 19, got more than 534,000 dislikes on YouTube and just 69,000 likes, according to third-party data.

The "Battlefield 6" reveal trailer, which premiered in July, received over 543,000 likes and 5,000 dislikes.

"There's some really big questions around the setting of this Call of Duty: has it gone too far into the realm of fiction and sci-fi?" said Chris Hewish, a former Activision executive who is now president of gaming fintech firm Xsolla.

While its popularity will likely ensure it sells millions of copies and draws thousands of players on Microsoft's Xbox service, its developers acknowledged criticism in an August post: "Some of you have said we've drifted from what made Call of Duty unique in the first place. We hear you."

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni and Arun Koyyur)