Earlier this month Electronic Arts confirmed that DICE is "way ahead" of schedule with Battlefield 6. An update shared with investors revealed that the game will be launching before the end of 2021, and that a reveal is scheduled for the spring.
"Our next Battlefield experience will mark a return to all out military warfare," EA CEO Andrew Wilson teased. "The game takes full advantage of the power of next generation platforms to bring massive immersive battles to life with more players than ever before.
"Featuring maps with unprecedented scale, the next edition of Battlefield takes all the destruction, player agency, vehicle and weapon combat that the franchise is known for and elevates it to another level. The team is focused and the game is ahead of our internal milestones. We will reveal the game in the spring and deliver a defining Battlefield experience for our players in holiday 2021."
Not long after this, reliable Battlefield and Call Of Duty insider Tom Henderson made vague claims that Battlefield 6 will make full use of the next-gen hardware by including fully destructible cities. He hinted that the one collapsing skyscraper seen in Battlefield 4 was the first of many to come in the upcoming game, but provided no further information.
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Now, a Reddit user claiming to be an FX artist has shared more information on the scope of Battlefield 6's potentially city-wide destruction and mind-blowing effects. FXFreax21 says they had to put together a throwaway account so as not to risk breaching any NDAs, but I should stress that these claims are completely unverified and should be taken with a pinch or two of salt.
The alleged leaker said that they learned about some of the things DICE are doing with Battlefield 6 at an industry talk from an FX Lead and a Software Engineer working on real-time destruction technology. They explained that part of this talk involved real-time destruction enabled by next-gen hardware and upcoming engines like Unreal 5 and Frostbite, the latter being the engine DICE uses for Battlefield.
"They showed us some very brief footage," the leaker wrote. "Similar to the tech demo shown at the EA show last summer. It featured a modern looking, glass front building toppling forward from a series of explosions on the ground floor. The building topples onto a truck parked in front and buries it in rubble, and for a real-time, interactive destruction sim it BLEW MY MIND."
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They stress that the people giving the talk didn't outright mention Battlefield, but said this tech was being used in an upcoming sandbox shooter where destruction was a focus point.
"It was mentioned that they had assisted in developing a 'map' where every building can be destroyed in real-time through user interaction," the leak continued. "The FX Lead said that an explosion at the top of the building can create a domino effect, sending debris through the floors below if the explosion is sizeable enough.
"They also discussed the implantation of fluid and pyro sims into these systems, stating that an explosion, fire, smoke and debris can realistically be blocked by surrounding walls and items (so imagine a smoke grenade in a room that only fills that room with smoke)."
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All of this certainly sounds plausible, given how much EA and DICE have been talking up Battlefield 6 as a truly next-gen shooter. With the spring reveal just a few months away, we don't have much longer to wait to see exactly what the future of Battlefield looks like.
Featured Image Credit: EATopics: DICE, News, EA, Battlefield 6