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EA's 'Battlefield' video game franchise will make the jump to television

By Rick Marshall Updated July 13, 2016

battlefield game tv series 3

Video games have been headed to the big screen with increasing frequency lately, but the small screen isn’t shying away from game adaptations either.

Paramount Pictures and Anonymous Content recently announced plans to bring the Battlefield franchise to television with Academy Award winner Michael Sugar attached as one of the project’s producers. There’s no word on what form the series will take at this point, only that the two studios — which also produced the recent television series Mr. Robot and True Detective — have picked up the rights to the Electronic Arts franchise with plans to turn it into a TV series.

“EA’s Battlefield has an incredibly dynamic narrative, coupled with a loyal fan base, which will allow us to bring this exciting and unique property to the small screen,” said Paramount TV president Amy Powell in a statement accompanying the announcement. “We look forward to working with EA and Anonymous Content and thank Michael Sugar for his tenacity in bringing us this exciting project.”

The Battlefield franchise debuted in 2002 with Battlefield 1942, which went on to spawn 11 subsequent major releases and more than a dozen expansions and other add-on and spinoff content. The first-person military shooter franchise boasts a fan base of more than 60 million players, and is best known for its focus on broad map strategies, teamwork, and the use of vehicles for its highly competitive online multiplayer battles.

“Battlefield is one of the most loved properties among our players,” said Patrick Söderlund, EA’s executive vice president. “We are thrilled that Anonymous Content and Paramount TV will look to introduce fans to Battlefield through a new medium.”

Despite the well-documented failure of game adaptations for television or the big screen, fans of the franchise could certainly do a lot worse than Anonymous Content and Paramount when it comes to studios interested in bringing a game to the screen.

“Together with EA and Paramount TV, we’ll develop the Battlefield TV series with the same commitment to robust storytelling that has made the game such a runaway success for nearly 15 years,” Sugar said.

There’s currently no official timetable for the development of the Battlefield series that’s been announced.

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Gaming

Single-player Battlefield content is coming from a new EA studio

Battlefield 2042 Season 2

Electronic Arts announced a new studio dedicated to developing single-player narrative campaigns for the Battlefield franchise. Located in Kirkland, Washington, the studio is called Ridgeline Games and is led by game director and Halo-co-creator Marcus Lehto.

"It is a great honor to have the opportunity to collaborate with DICE and Ripple Effect and lead the charge on expanding the narrative, storytelling, and character development opportunities in the Battlefield series," says Lehto in a statement.

Gaming

Battlefield 2042 Season 2 deepens progression with Assignments

Crawford shoots enemies with a turret he place in Battlefield 2042.

EA unveiled Battlefield 2042 Season 2: Master of Arms today, detailing the new content players can expect when it drops on August 30. Master of Arms features the new map, weapon, gadget, and Specialist content that players desire from a significant update like this, but this next season of Battlefield 2042 also deepens progression with a brand new feature called Assignments.

Battlefield 2042 is a multiplayer-only game, so having an interesting progression system is key to ensuring players stick around. Currently, players can increase their Player Level as they also make their way through a battle pass. The Assignments feature will now allow players to seamlessly work toward unlocking Vault Weapons, which are guns that were previously only available in Battlefield Portal or previous seasons.

Gaming

Battlefield 2042 Season 1 is an improvement, but a late one

A specialist holds Battlefield 2042's new crossbow weapon.

Battlefield 2042's launch didn't go quite as planned for EA. While it was poised to be the publisher's next live service hit, it floundered at launch due to an overwhelming number of bugs, a controversial ability-driven specialist system, maps that felt way too big, and more. While Digital Trends' reviewer loved the base game, many players didn't, so EA spent months fixing it. As a result, Season 1: Zero Hour was pushed back all the way to June 9, over six months after the game's launch. Ahead of its release, I got the opportunity to try out some of Season 1's new content a see if Battlefield 2042 has really changed for the better.
This primarily consisted of going hands-on with the new Specialist Ewelina Lis on the new map Exposure. Is Battlefield 2042 in a better state now than it was at launch? Yes. Will it make enough compelling additions and changes to bring you back if you're not a hardcore Battlefield fan? Not really.
Battlefield 2042 | Season 1: Zero Hour Gameplay Trailer Premiere
What's new?
The main additions coming to Battlefield 2042 at the start of Season 1 are a new rocket launcher-wielding specialist named Ewelina Lis, a new map set in the Canadian Rockies called Exposure, new weapons including a crossbow and marksman rifle, and a battle pass containing lots of free and paid unlockables. It's definitely the meatiest batch of content Battlefield 2042 has received since launch, but it doesn't revamp or fix every core problem with the game.

Starting with the battle pass, don't expect any wild crossover or crazy outfits, just a lot of new realistic looks for your specialists, vehicles, and weapons. It is challenge-based, which Halo has shown the downsides of, but thankfully 30 tiers of it are free and the only things unlocked by paying up are cosmetic. That means everyone will be able to try the new specialist Ewelina Lis. She is a helpful Engineer Specialist as she always has a rocket launcher at her disposal to help destroy vehicles.
While I found the new Ghostmaker R10 Crossbow and BSV-M Marksman Rifle to be too slow and not powerful enough to be very useful in a game with such a quick time to kill, Lis may be a useful specialist that will stick around on most squads. She's particularly useful on the brand-new map Exposure.
When previewing the new season, I got to try out both Conquest and Breakthrough on Exposure, a map that supports both 128-player and 64-player matches. As it takes place in and around a base built into the side of a mountain, it has one of the most distinctive and vertical layouts of any new Battlefield 2042 map. The tensest firefights took place in a spot nestled on the side of the mountain, as players could flank from within the mountain on foot or from the skies in new stealth helicopters. While I enjoyed those moments and attacking the base in the helicopter, it still felt a bit too big to traverse on foot outside of that base, a common problem with all of Battlefield 2042's maps.