Battlefield V was officially unveiled couple of days ago by EA, and subsidiary developer DICE, on May 23, and its newly released trailer confirms the series is heading back to World War II. During EA’s reveal livestream, DICE announced that the game would be focusing on less-familiar locations from the war, such as the Netherlands, Norway, and the ruins of Rotterdam.
This will be the first Battlefield game set in WWII since Battlefield 1943 in 2009, though thankfully, it looks like this Battlefield will bring new gameplay opportunities with it. One of those opportunities involves playing as women on the front lines of battle (as seen in the trailer), and a small but vocal number of Battlefield players weren’t happy about the prospect. The game’s cover art also features a female soldier front and center, wielding pistols, and the unhappy fans are up in arms over a lack of “historical accuracy”. This is all despite the fact that, historically, there are many records of women who were on the battlefield during World War II.
Twitter even has a #NotMyBattlefield hashtag going around, but that isn’t phasing Battlefield 5‘s team. Developers made it clear that embracing realism to the point of unnecessarily limiting player choice wasn’t something they were going to do. DICE’s general manager Oskar Gabrielson took to his own Twitter earlier today and essentially told disgruntled fans to move on, writing, “First, let me be clear about one thing. Player choice and female playable characters are here to stay.”
“We want Battlefield V to represent all those who were a part of the greatest drama in human history, and give players choice to choose and customize the characters they play with,” Gabrielson continued on his Twitter thread. “Our commitment as a studio is to do everything we can to create games that are inclusive and diverse. We always set out to push boundaries and deliver unexpected experiences. But above all, our games must be fun!”
Not only would excluding female player characters be moving backwards, according to Gabrielson, it would be detrimental to the goal of allowing gamers to play the way they want. The Battlefield series has never shied away from implementing a few historical inaccuracies for the sake of players’ enjoyment, and Gabrielson added a final tweet to prove his point.
Everyone’s battlefield, indeed. As for the rest of the game’s reveal, you can watch the full livestream below. Battlefield 5 is currently set to release this year on October 19 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC.