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The year was 2017, and I was hooked on Star Wars: Battlefront 2. I witnessed Hoth’s lumbering AT-AT behemoths in ways I never saw before– looking right at the barrel of its laser cannons; shortly, I was vaporized after taking my last stand while my Rebel scum teammates ran away. My heroics likely didn’t work because I spammed the wrong rallying cry in the chat: “For the Emperor.” Wrong fandom. The context, in this case, was traitorous and might have invited the abandonment in place of friendly fire.
However, my teammates’ dereliction of duty didn’t distract me from the fact that I’ve been craving for a Warhammer 40k in the style of Battlefield (or, in Star Wars‘ case, Battlefront). If there’s a corporate pairing that can pull that prospect off with the panache and budget it needs, EA and DICE could very well do it, as was evident in Battlefront 2‘s production value (MTX and loot boxes notwithstanding).
It’s too bad that EA appears to be focusing on a Battlefield that we’ve likely seen before already. It might have been better for Battlefield to branch out and perhaps even copy the trajectory and success of a similar franchise, such as Total War.
Battlefield 1 Proved that Experiments are Successful for Battlefield
For a bit of context, the Total War strategy franchise stuck to its realistic historical setting formula for decades until they struck a deal with Games Workshop and snagged themselves a juicy Warhammer Fantasy license. The result was a game-changer for Total War in many ways (including financially). It was hard to go back to the regular historical Total War titles afterward due to Total War: Warhammer‘s success and formula shake-up.
To a certain extent, you can see the same progression with EA’s Battlefield 1, which, for the first time ever, took on a new playground, namely World War 1. It was by far the most intense Battlefield experience to date, thanks to the more chaotic combat that mimicked WW1’s hellscape. Battlefield 1 was also commercially successful.
Oddly enough, despite the success of their experimentation, EA and DICE went back to the safer formula, with Battlefield 5 taking place in WW2 again and Battlefield 2042 being semi-contemporary. As a result, Battlefield 1 still outsold Battlefield 5 and 2042, and even the combined sales of the latter two games pale in comparison to the WW1 title.
Heck, even EA and DICE’s Star Wars: Battlefront, which is the Star Wars version of Battlefield, proved to be successful with numbers similar to Battlefield 1. That success should’ve been enough to convince Battlefield devs to keep experimenting because the experiment paid off, but somehow, they shook off the momentum.
Warhammer Has Proven to be a Good Idea for a Cross-Franchise Experiment
Going back to Warhammer, Total War‘s success with the franchise crossover is undeniable. Thus, it stands within reason that a similar crossover to Warhammer 40k would do the Battlefield franchise good.
The whole idea could be even bigger and grander than Star Wars: Battlefront 2, with 128-player planetary conquest modes that allow for three-way or even four-way conflicts between the different space-faring factions of the Warhammer 40k lore.
Faction variety– one thing that Battlefield has been sorely missing, would also shoot through the roof with limitless potential for justified cosmetics (ka-ching). Moreover, the multiplayer scene would be bustling, with faction preferences serving as proxy guilds or clans, essentially setting up the hypothetical Battlefield: Warhammer 40k as some kind of hybrid MMOFPS.
It all sounds exciting on paper, but execution is everything, and that’s where a lot of the mistakes tend to happen, especially in EA and DICE’s case, as we’ve seen in the past Battlefield and Battlefront games. However, the Warhammer name tag alone should rake in a sizable population.
Warhammer Isn’t Niche Anymore
A decade ago, you could make the argument that Warhammer 40k wouldn’t sell. But times have changed since recent Warhammer franchise successes, such as Space Marine 2 and Rogue Trader, along with that single Amazon’s Secret Level episode, have put the franchise into the mainstream light.
While Space Marine 2 is an epic game, it’s still an on-the-rails corridor shooter with a small multiplayer scope and doesn’t offer the same freedom with tactics as Battlefield. Hence, a Battlefield game for Warhammer 40k would be the first of its kind for both franchises and would still be groundbreaking even if EA or DICE put as little effort into the hypothetical game as possible.
Of course, the prospect would face some huge challenges. A Battlefield or Battlefront game for Warhammer 40k will be expensive, and EA has a track record of ruining their live-service multiplayer games with loot boxes and MTX– Battlefield included. But nobody else can make a potential Battlefield or a Warhammer 40k game this big.
For now, we’re stuck with EA and DICE’s insistence on a semi-MilSim that can never compete with Call of Duty and has a reputation for ruining its goodwill with its players. Battlefield fans remain rather cautious despite the new game.
