Battlefield 6 Takes Aim At Call Of Duty With Global Launch Today
- Battlefield 6 launches today on consoles and PC, with synchronized global release times confirmed
- Over 1.7 million pre-orders were made, with projected first-week sales of 5 million copies, according to Newzoo
- Open Beta attracted 24.7 million players, with nearly half of PC players not returning to Call of Duty afterward.
- EA finalizes the launch just weeks after announcing its $55 billion sale to Saudi investors
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Boots On The Ground All Over The World At The Same Time
EA has kept Battlefield 6 in development for four years and judging from gameplay videos from the Open Beta weekends, the game certainly looks like the long wait has been worth it. Early birds on the US east coast can expect the game to be available on Oct. 10 at 08:00 PT (17:00 CEST) with Japan and Australia releases on Nov. 11 at 00:00 JST and 02:00 AEDT respectively.
It is estimated that 1.7 million copies have been sold in pre-orders ahead of the launch with projected sales of 5 million copies in the first week alone according to Newzoo, a PC and console market intelligence company based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
“Battlefield 6 launches with Patch 1.0.1.0, delivering a wide range of updates and improvements across the game made since the Open Beta Weekends,” EA said on its website: “This release reflects player feedback from the Beta and ongoing playtesting from Battlefield Labs, alongside our continued development efforts.”
Battlefield 6 has all the momentum for a successful launch. Even though Call of Duty was the best selling franchise in the US in 2024, for the 16th year in a row, numbers indicate that Battlefield could come out on top of Black Ops 7.
“Battlefield Will Boot Stomp CoD This Year”
Former Blizzard President Mike Ybarra believes that Battlefield vs Call of Duty is a foregone conclusion, and that CoD will be better off for it in the long run.
“Battlefield will boot stomp CoD this year. But the real win here is CoD won’t be lazy anymore, and we’ll all get better FPS games for it,” Ybarra tweeted on Aug. 8 this year.
Battlefield 6 reached a total of 24.7 million players during the eight days of Open Beta in August according to Newzoo. The intelligence company also looked at how many of those players play Call of Duty and noted that of this group of players 29% on Xbox did not return to Call of Duty. For PlayStation it was 24% and a massive 48% of PC players stuck with Battlefield 6.
The company predicts that PC players are more likely to affect Black Ops 7 sales than players on consoles. However, Xbox’s recent price hikes from $20 to $30 for the Game Pass Ultimate, where both shooters will be available from day one, was met by a storm of criticism.
The GamePass account on X was flooded with screenshots of players canceling their subscriptions. It was reported that the number of cancellations caused disruptions on the Xbox website for days. How this will affect sales remains to be seen.
EA Banking On A Successful Game Launch After Agreeing To $55 Billion Sale
Less than two weeks after EA announced that the company will be bought for $55 billion by mainly Saudi investors, the global video game company cannot afford to take any chances, and it shows in the latest patch notes of Battlefield 6.
The company has addressed most of the concerns voiced by players during the Beta round to make sure as many as possible will be satisfied. This also includes taking measures to prevent cheaters from playing. In fact, gamers on PC will have to enable Secure Boot to be able to play.
“This necessary security feature allows EA’s Javelin Anticheat to detect, remove and deter cheaters. You can check whether or not Secure Boot is enabled on your computer by checking its System Information menu; simply perform a general search or enter “msinfo32” in your run command window to see this menu,” EA said on its website.
Four Core Classes, Destructible Environment, Tanks, Choppers, And Jets
Battles are fast-paced and put players in 360 degree theaters of war. The game can be played in a single-player campaign as part of Dagger 13, an elite Marine unit, or in six different multiplayer modes, including All-Out Warfare.
Each squad is made up of four players and each member can play a different class: Assault is for those who want to be rushing into battle first; The Engineer deals with large threats like tanks, choppers, and jets; Campers can try the Recon class and look for vantage points to snipe the enemy from; Support is the last one and makes sure that the squad is supplied, healed, and can lay down heavy cover fire.
Buildings can be more or less reduced to rubble when they are hit by rockets and grenades. Collapsing buildings can be a strategic move. It removes sniping positions for the opposition and blocks roads.
There are enough vehicles in the game to attack from the ground with powerful tanks, deploy team members with a helicopter, or obliterate everything in sight with a jet fighter.
An added feature involves players on a different level. Once all maps have been mastered there is the option to design your own for endless re-playability, and another layer of challenges using NPC scripting. This is the Portal mode and anyone’s creation has the potential to become an official mode in the game.
