EA Play's E3 2019 festivities continued with a Battlefield V presentation which introduced a whole raft of content for the community to look forward to, not limited to a bunch of new maps and increases to max player rank.
The presentation pulled Lars Gustavsson and Ryan McArthur from DICE on-stage to run through some of the major upcoming changes to the game. It looks like Battlefield V fans can expect a host of new multiplayer maps for infantry-focused gameplay, and the team also announced a bunch of core gameplay updates including the much-anticipated ability to create private games.
Battlefield 5: Marita and Al-Sandan
The new Marita map that fans have been whispering about now has an introductory trailer revealed, along with the Al-Sandan map. For those wanting to check out all the trailers for the Battlefield 5 maps that have been revealed today, we've got you covered.
When the Mercury map was revealed last week, it was a look at a part of World War II that hadn't been captured as fully by the Battlefield team yet. Now, Marita expands on this concept. McArthur noted that it would be a very vertical experience which a heavy focus on infantry combat, and that it would "total creative chaos" for players on the Albanian border trying to push back the Axis Powers.
On the other hand, the new Al-Sandan map has been adapted from the Under No Flag singleplayer map and optimized for multiplayer exploration. Set in Africa, the setup of this new location will involve having to play around camps, radio towers and more to capture and hold points spanning large distances. Marita will be available for play in July, with Al-Sandan being available to players from June 27.
Battlefield 5: Max Rank Increase and Private Games
Gustavsson was adamant on discussing some of the exciting core gameplay updates that his team has planned for Battlefield 5. One important requested feature from the community has been a change to max ranks, and it was announced today at EA Play that the max rank in the game would be increased from 50 to 500. This is quite the big jump in numbers, and it'll be interesting to see how DICE continues to incentivize players to climb the rank ladder now that it's gotten a whole lot longer.
Another bit of exciting news dropped by DICE was that there would be the implementation of private games as a feature. This is something else that the community has been clamoring for, and McArthur noted that this feature would be out this September for players to try. Gustavsson indicated that the Battlefield 5 team was anticipating a lot of player feedback around this new feature, so those who have been waiting for this now have a chance to have their voices heard.
Battlefield 5: Iwo Jima
To top off the announcements from today's Battlefield 5 EA play presentation, Gustavsson was eager to announce the launch of a new campaign in the Pacific for players to enjoy. With the release of Marita and Al-Sandan, there's a truly international flavor to the content planned for the rest of the year.
The focus here with the new campaign will be the Battle of Iwo Jima, pitting the US and Japanese forces against each other in what looks like it could be a novel approach to traversal and combat in the game; both McArthur and Gustavsson mentioned the "island-hopping" nature of warfare in the Pacific, so it's likely we'll see that incorporated somehow. Maybe we're going to get some new vehicles? Iwo Jima is going to be available this fall, and we expect to hear more about this initiative in the near future.
If you've not yet caught up on the other EA Play presentations like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Apex Legends, check out our handy posts that we'll update as we learn more.