Games centered on war have always borrowed liberally from film. Medal of Honor: Frontline famously recreated the terrifying chaos of Saving Private Ryan’s opening scene, and in over two decades since then, everything from Apocalypse Now to Black Hawk Down has made a clear impression on developers making history-based shooters.
Now, Developer EA Motive is looking to Hollywood for inspiration for the next big entry in the Battlefield series. But where it’s pulling that inspiration is a little different than you’d expect.
“I’m a big fan of Lioness,” creative director Roman Campos-Oriola told Inverse. The show, based on a real-life CIA program that recruited an all-woman team to operate in the Middle East, is a little more cerebral than the typical macho military films centered around soldiers on the frontlines.
Meanwhile, executive producer Philippe Ducharme told Inverse, “I really enjoyed Civil War.” Alex Garland’s 2024 film, which follows a group of journalists documenting an American secession crisis, also subverts war movie tropes. “Some of the things that we’re pushing [in this game], the film is actually a good reference,” Ducharme says.
“The elements we’re really interested in is the concept of talented but ordinary people put in extraordinary situations,” Campos-Oriola, said. “That creates a very interesting dynamic in terms of relationships with other people. These are elements we’re looking to capture in the single player.”
The Montreal-based Motive has made a name for itself with robust single-player experiences like Star Wars Squadrons and, most recently, the excellent 2023 Dead Space remake. The studio hopes to apply its skills to one of Electronic Arts’ most important franchises.
“Dead Space allowed us to know the quirks and strengths that we all have, and how we complement each other as a team,” Campos-Oriola said. The goal of refining the 2008 survival horror classic while staying true to its spirit was a unifying one for the young studio, but it also gave them a surprising amount of preparation for transitioning to Battlefield.
“On Dead Space, we talked a lot about the curve of tension. How to go from beat to beat, having the highs and the lows to keep players hooked, and even play with their expectations a little bit,” Ducharme said. “It’s obviously very different in a game like Battlefield. But we still brought that mentality over.”
Pacing its campaign and narrative is the number one way Dead Space is impacting the next Battlefield, which you shouldn’t expect to go full-throttle throughout its single-player component. Ducharme says the team is taking extra care to balance slower but narratively engaging moments with the high-octane firefights one would expect from the series.
Battlefield’s single-player campaigns have often benefited from such an approach. Battlefield 1’s blend of hectic gunfights, vehicle sections, and stealth marked a high point for the series. 2015’s Battlefield Hardline may have been divisive for traditional fans, but its street-level campaign that allowed players to approach things non-lethally marked one of the most creative entries to date.
Motive is one of four studios working on the untitled next entry. In addition to working on single-player with developer Criterion and DICE, it’s also producing multiplayer maps with DICE. Motive had previously collaborated with DICE on 2017’s Star Wars: Battlefront II, and Ducharme still considers it a privilege to have learned from the Swedish developer’s extensive knowledge of crafting great multiplayer games.
“We work with their leads and directors to understand what steps we should be following, what the right approach is to make sure we’re delivering maps at the high level they’ve been doing,” Ducharme said. “And they’ve been extremely generous with their feedback and time. We knew how to use the tools, but we didn’t necessarily have the knowledge to deliver the best maps.”
Thanks to that help, Ducharme believes Motive’s maps are some of the best on offer thus far.
“I play [our maps] more, so maybe it's the knowledge I have of the spaces,” he said. “But they’re extremely fun, and I think the results show just how our teams really worked together to get there.”
The next Battlefield is currently being playtested with the Battlefield Labs program, a playable alpha of the yet-to-be-announced game’s multiplayer. While a formal reveal hasn’t happened yet, clips of Battlefield Labs have suggested a promising return to form that harkens back to the days of Battlefield 3 and 4. Whatever this game ends up being, we should expect it to be released sometime before March 2026, according to EA CEO Andrew Wilson.
