Tom Henderson, a reputable industry insider, claimed that Battlefield 2042’s new game mode Hazard Zone may become a battle royale if unsuccessful. DICE’s futuristic take on the Battlefield franchise is around the corner, but its recent beta release looks to have cooled some of the hype. The Battlefield 2042 beta build was littered with bugs and glitches, and had HUD elements that made it difficult to differentiate teammates from enemies. Though EA and DICE assured audiences that the build was several months old, this is contradicted by reports that the beta build is more recent than the developers let on.

Today's trailer revealed that Hazard Zone is a squad-based mode where teams compete to retrieve data drives from crashed satellites scattered around the map. It was previously rumored that Hazard Zone has battle royale elements and would be EA and DICE’s way of eclipsing Battlefield V’s Firestorm, which was a previous attempt at a battle royale that was met with a mixed reception. Reports suggested Hazard Zone is similar to Escape from Tarkov, a battle royale-esque game that allows players to take advanced gear from previous runs into the next match.

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Prominent leaker Tom Henderson claimed in a tweet that Battlefield 2042’s Hazard Zone game mode would become a battle royale if it's unsuccessful. This indicates that the focus on data drive retrieval seen in the recent trailer will likely eclipse the battle royale features that were indicated before the reveal. If Henderson is right, however, the mode could lose a lot of these distinctive features if it doesn't resonate with fans. Henderson stated that he imagines Hazard Zone to be “an LTM or something to start. It’s probably one of the reasons we can’t create a BR in Portal.”

LTM stands for Limited Time Mode and was previously made popular in games like Fortnite or Warzone. In Fortnite, LTMs are a playlist of limited-time gameplay experiences in Epic’s battle royale. LTMs often add a unique spin on default game modes. In the case of Battlefield 2042, it could bring that twist to any number of previous Battlefield franchise modes like Conquest. While Henderson's LTM speculation came before the trailer reveal, cycling out the data retrieval mode for other limited-time challenges could be another way to improve longevity for the game mode if the initial version proves unsuccessful.

EA and DICE have not addressed or confirmed this theory, so it’s important to take it in stride. However, given the popularity of the genre, it would make sense for DICE to find a way to integrate a battle royale mode into the new game. Tom Henderson previously claimed that Battlefield 2042 was originally entirely a battle royale game, which could mean DICE likely already has work it could adapt if Hazard Zone proves unsuccessful.

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Battlefield 2042 will release on November 19, 2021 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Source: Tom Henderson/Twitter