While the team is hard at work on polishing up Battlefield 1, in a short video interview by XboxAchievements with DICE’s design director for Battlefield 1, Lars Gustavasson talks a little bit about the history and future of the Battlefield series. Gustavasson mentioned how, starting from Bad Company, the team wanted to make a more contemporary shooter, which is why the last few entries in the series took this approach. When prompted on whether or not ‘Bad Company 3’ was pitched during early development, Gustavasson replied, “Yeah, the question about Bad Company, ‘Will the boys return?’ has always been at the back of our heads,”
Having to work on building up on the concept of World War 1 since 2008, when the idea was pitched, the team was exploring ways to making a shooting game in World War 1 work. Gustavasson explained that initial thoughts was that World War 1 seemed like simple trench fights and slow paced bolt rifle action. Over time, instead of taking the Bad Company 3 route and returning to that storyline, the team began to realize that the battles and weaponry in World War 1 were the blueprint to future combat, and so had a lot of potential. Taking care to show respect for this era of war, the team have expressed how proud they are of their achievements in showing the great range of battles across the world and incredible amount of variety during the war.
With Battlefield 1 well on its way to release on October 21st, the team are drumming up as much hype and appreciation for a neglected era of war with not just interviews but with the cinematic showcases from the game. Focusing on making an emotive experience, the game is shaping up to be an extremely interesting title for the franchise.