Georgia Levy-Collins<\/span>BBC Newsbeat<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n “A new challenger has appeared.”<\/p>\n In the fiercely competitive world of video games, it’s common for new contenders to fade away as quickly as they burst on to the scene.<\/p>\n But Battlefield 6 is hoping to change that.<\/p>\n It’s the latest entry in a long-running military shooter series often framed as a grittier, more realistic answer to Call of Duty. <\/p>\n The title’s never quite managed to match its most famous rival in terms of sales or players, but there are signs the new installment could close the gap.<\/p>\n A preview weekend giving players a chance to try out the game earlier this year broke records, and the buzz heading into its launch has been huge.<\/p>\n But the project is still a big gamble for publisher Electronic Arts (EA), which has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars making it.<\/p>\n BBC Newsbeat’s spoken to some of the makers to find out how they hope it will pay off. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Four EA-owned studios have been working on the game under the Battlefield Studios banner.<\/p>\n They include original series developer Dice, based in Sweden, LA’s Motive Studios and Ripple Effect Studios in Canada.<\/p>\n The fourth, Criterion, is based in Guildford, UK. <\/p>\n Rebecka Coutaz is the general manager of the two European studios, and tells Newsbeat that, in terms of what it’s offering players, “Battlefield 6 is probably unbeatable”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The game comes off the back of the futuristic Battlefield 2042, released four years ago to a negative reception it struggled to recover from.<\/p>\n “We probably couldn’t make and develop Battlefield 6 without the learnings we had in Battlefield 2042,” Rebekah tells Newsbeat.<\/p>\n One of those lessons was to get fans involved early, and the team launched invite-only community playtests earlier this year.<\/p>\n The “feedback was explosively positive,” says Rebecka.<\/p>\n Another missing ingredient from Battlefield 2042 was a single-player campaign, which has been restored this time around.<\/p>\n Criterion design director Fasahat “Fas” Salim is the one in charge of “making sure those missions are as fun and interesting as possible for the players”.<\/p>\n Despite claims that the scale of the project had put a strain on the different studios<\/a> collaborating across continents to build the game, Fas is positive about the process.<\/p>\n “Collaborating with different cultures, different backgrounds, it’s a really interesting environment to be involved in every day,” he says.<\/p>\n “This whole approach has been something new but something really exciting because we are working with people from all over the world.” <\/p>\n As for the expectation on the team, Fas says: “There is pressure but also it’s exciting.<\/p>\n “It’s a big project. It’s probably the biggest that most of us have ever worked on.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That’s definitely true of at least one team member, lighting artist Vlad Kokhan.<\/p>\n The 21-year-old makes the atmospheric effects that shape the mood, tone, and direction of the single-player campaign.<\/p>\n He completed an internship at Criterion before getting a job there, and currently works part-time while finishing his visual effects degree at Bournemouth University.<\/p>\n Vlad says he’s a long-time fan of the Battlefield series, and remembers playing the fourth instalment of the series at a friend’s house when he was younger.<\/p>\n To be working on it now, as his first industry job, “doesn’t feel real”.<\/p>\n “It’s really crazy seeing the marketing everywhere”, he says.<\/p>\n “To know that I’ve put my own thing into the game is really surreal.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Battlefield 6’s launch is expected to be a big one, with analysts predicting it could sell up to five millions copies in its first week<\/a>.<\/p>\n But its real success in a volatile and unpredictable industry won’t be clear for months, if not years.<\/p>\n To maintain the momentum, it will need to draw – and keep – players away from rivals including CoD, Fortnite and Roblox.<\/p>\n But while the signs are promising, Rebecka is cautious when asked if she is feeling confident.<\/p>\n “I would say yes and no, you never know,” she says.<\/p>\n “The only thing that matters to me now – and I’ve been saying it for four years – is that we don’t disappoint our community, our players.”<\/p>\n Concerns for Battlefield’s future were also sparked by recent news that EA had agreed to sell the company to a Saudi Arabia-led group for $55bn (\u00a341bn)<\/a>.<\/p>\n EA has taken on $20bn (\u00a314bn) of debt as part of the deal – known as a leveraged buyout – prompting fans to fear of cutbacks.<\/p>\n The company has told staff to expect “no immediate changes” to their jobs.<\/p>\n For Battlefield 6, Rebecka tells Newsbeat the team will continue as planned, and has already shared details for monthly updates and content additions.<\/p>\n “I am here to help our team members make their best work in their careers so the way hasn’t changed for me, the way is still the same,” she insists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"EA](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/8a49\/live\/f4d6e500-a50c-11f0-ba60-dd95d022a9f0.jpg.webp\")
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