Want to get your hands on Battlefield 2018 before anyone else? You’ll have to head on over to Hollywood before E3 for a shot at that, and much more, during EA Play 2018.
EA announced the event’s return on its official site – but it’s the mention of the “next Battlefield experience” that has really caught the eye. While the wording is deliberately ambiguous – ‘experience’ sounds like it’s been force-fed to PR staff by a hotshot executive – it’s pretty amazing that a game would debut with such fanfare – and shows the confidence that DICE and EA have in the product.
Tickets for the event are free so, expect big crowds and even bigger explosions coming from the monitors as Battlefield 2018 gets its first public showing. The game, which is reportedly out in October, has been thin on the ground in terms of details. Smart money would be on WW2, but Battlefield: Bad Company 3, or another spin-off entirely is a distinct possibility.
With the event coming pre-E3, it’ll be interesting to see how much of a splash EA chooses to make at the show proper with Battlefield 2018. While it’s unlikely to sidestep it entirely, previous years has shown that being a big part of a console conference isn’t the be-all and end-all anymore. In fact, word-of-mouth and general player-to-player buzz on the streets of Hollywood might be all that the game needs to have a shot at besting Call of Duty this year.
Either way, one thing is clear: the general public will be among the very first to get their hands on the FPS just before E3 rolls into town from June 9-11, and EA promises “a new system to give you better hands on access to your favorite games.”