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[IbizaPocholo]

'Secretly Console First' – Ripple Effect Talks Building Battlefield 6 and Lessons Learned from Battlefield 2042

Breakthrough.

nordic.ign.com

We sat down with technical director Christian Buhl and senior console combat designer Matthew Nickerson earlier this week to learn more about how BF Studios worked to shock life back into the classic EA shooter series with Battlefield 6. Our conversation touched on how Ripple Effect helped lay the groundwork for what it feels is "the best Battlefield ever," with a focus on consoles, fighting off cheaters, learning from Battlefield 2042, dealing with leaks, and more player feedback than ever before.

• Collaborative Development: Ripple Effect, DICE, Criterion Games, and Motive Studio formed a four-studio team to build Battlefield 6, aiming for "the best Battlefield ever." This global collaboration leveraged each studio's strengths, resulting in a larger-scale game than any single studio could produce.
• Console-First Philosophy: The game was developed with a "secretly console-first" approach, prioritizing console experience from the start, including extensive controller playtesting on PCs to ensure it feels native to consoles rather than a PC port.
• Lessons from Battlefield 2042: Key takeaways included improving stability, performance, and player feedback integration after 2042's rocky launch. This led to BF Labs for early testing, post-mortem analysis, and focus on crossplay, aim assist, weapon balance, and gunplay.
• Performance Modes: On PS5, Performance Mode targets 80+ FPS with reduced settings, while Quality Mode offers higher visuals at 60 FPS. PS5 Pro enhances resolutions and frame rates. Xbox Series S runs at 60 FPS/1080p, with memory constraints addressed through optimizations.
• Crossplay and Anti-Cheat: Crossplay is default but toggleable, with "preferred crossplay" prioritizing console matches. Aim assist was redesigned for balance. Anti-cheat includes secure boot, Javelin system, and dedicated teams to combat cheating.
• Beta Feedback and Future Plans: Positive beta feedback influenced tweaks like aim assist and loadouts. Post-launch includes robust content updates, ongoing data collection, and player-driven evolution, emphasizing realism and "Play Battlefield how you want to."
• Other Challenges: Development tackled leaks by focusing on feedback over secrecy, adjusted map designs and spotting mechanics based on community input, and balanced class systems for flexibility in Portal and other modes.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

They clearly still didn't learn enough to include a damn server browser tho.

 

[Pakoe]

Is that why it lacks a simple server browser?

 

[Killjoy-NL]

They clearly still didn't learn enough to include a damn server browser tho.

Is that why it lacks a simple server browser?

As annoying as it's absence is, a server browser is not a fundamental element and should be rather easy to add through an update.

Maybe it'll even be there at launch for all we know.

 

[Avid Reading Horse]

They clearly still didn't learn enough to include a damn server browser tho.

Well, console first means unless you can mash a PLAY NOW button and be getting a cheap kill in under 10 seconds they're just going to hop off and do drugs or something.