Why ‘Battlefield 5’ Might Look a Lot Like ‘Fortnite Battle Royale’

There’s no denying it, Fortnite: Battle Royale has utterly changed the shooter game landscape. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds began the battle royale trend and Fortnite perfected it. This last-player-standing game mode has rocketed to the forefront of pop culture and big gaming companies, like Electronic Arts, want a slice of the pie.

EA’s Swedish branch, DICE, the studio responsible for the Battlefield franchise has reportedly been cooking up its own 100-player battleground for its upcoming title Battlefield 5. This new release will be set in World War II, as a follow-up to the DICE’s previous World War I game, only this time there might be an online mode that looks a lot like Fortnite. According to an anonymous source with knowledge of the studio interviewed by VentureBeat, developers at the company have put together a prototype that could compete with the likes of PUBG and Fortnite. Games like these have made a killing since their popularity spiked and its only natural for big-name titles to want to get involved.

The leak comes directly after it was rumored that Battlefield’s biggest competitor, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise, might also be including a battle royale in its upcoming game Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Both games are competing for the same market so it seems only natural that DICE would clap back with its own riff on the wildly popular game mode.

But don’t expect to parachute down on an island aboard a WWII bomber when Battlefield 5 comes out. EA hasn’t said anything regarding these rumors and likely hasn’t approved the game mode for release. It probably won’t be ready for the game’s scheduled October 2018 drop. If this rumored project is greenlit it will likely be released as downloadable content to expand off of the original game.

Regardless of whether or not this is simply speculation, the Battlefield franchise lends itself perfectly to a 100-player brawl mode. The pervious games have included hyper-realistic tanks, planes, and other machines of sheer destruction. Incorporating the game’s stellar arsenal of vehicles into a Fortnite-like showdown would make for some of the most brutal virtual cranage the internet has ever seen.

Everyone might be jumping on the battle royale bandwagon, but if certain games are able to put their own unique twist on it than Fortnite might have some still competition ahead.