EA DICE has recently announced that they will be adding a female soldier class to Battlefield 1 within the In the Name of the Tsar expansion which is expected to release this summer. This is the second expansion for the game and will focus on the Russian Army. The first expansion They Shall Not Pass which was released in March introduced a new class to the game. This next expansion will bring about a new class as well; The Russian Scout. This class serves as an introduction to playable female characters in Battlefield 1’s multiplayer.
One of Battlefield 1’s single player campaigns contains a female protagonist however during an interview after last years E3, Lars Gustavsson stated to Eurogamer that no female soldiers would be available during multiplayer. After the announcement of the Russian Scout class Dan Mitre global manager for the community engagement of EA responded to user on Twitter who was excited about the news “So glad you’re excited! We certainly are. The community has been asking for a playable female character for a while now.”
The original Russian women’s Battalion of Death was a unit that was formed in May of 1917. The soldiers in the Battalion of Death fought during World War I in the Kerensky Offensive where the women led an advance into German territory. EA DICE has received quite a few complaints about not being “historically accurate” with this recent addition. The Battlefield Twitter account said that “The Women’s Battalion of Death is represented by the Russian Scout class.” When asked if the Russian scout class was to represent a specific soldier from the original Battalion of Death an EA representative said on Twitter, “We’re leaving this all at tease levels for now.”