Battlefield 6’s battle royale mode has a name, and it isn’t quite as awful as I was expecting, falling well short of the exhilarating cringe of “Battlefortnite”. Battlefield REDSEC, they’re calling it. Such a Tom Clancelled, Limp Bizkit-ass moniker. What does REDSEC stand for, EA? Rampant Ennui Detected, Send Emergency Cookies? Or is it a game about hunting down commie office assistants? See, this is why they pay me the big bananas here at Rock Paper Shitpun Dot Com.
The more momentous news here is that REDSEC will be free-to-play. This implies that it will exist as a standalone experience, like Call Of Duty: Warzone – an endlessly contracting and expanding skirmish that floats alongside the numbered sequels. It won’t just be an update for Battlefield 6 itself, which explains why it’s absent from the latter’s Season 1 DLC plans. Still, I’m getting ahead of myself.
There is nothing else to share right now, beyond pointing you toward EA’s placeholder for the full gameplay trailer tomorrow. It seems likely the publishers’ hands have been forced by rumours this weekend – the people who outed it as REDSEC also claim that it’ll launch on 28th October.
Last week, dataminers also discovered a mysterious piece of forthcoming content called “Granite” on the EA app, rumoured to be the new Battlefield’s battle royale functionality. I am defiantly clinging to the hope that this is a literal addition to the game’s building materials that will absolutely ruin the lives of tank drivers.
All this comes as EA make tweaks to Battlefield 6’s progression system, handling and arsenal – recent measures include cracking down on attempts to farm the bots in custom modes for easy XP. In hindsight, I wonder how much of that tweaking was carried out with a view to preparing the ground for REDSEC – even if the latter can be played separately, there will surely be a lot of crossover with Battlefield 6’s multiplayer component. I also wouldn’t be surprised if the game takes heavy inspiration from Respawn’s Apex Legends, EA’s flagship battle royale – the current head of Battlefield Studios is Vince Zampella, Respawn co-founder.
Again, I’m speculating. And why should I speculate, when some of you lurking bastards have been playing REDSEC in playtests? I know because you keep popping up in the comments on Battlefield 6 articles to waggle your eyebrows and hum innocently. Come on, break your NDA. I won’t tell anyone. Nobody from EA reads this site anyway. There’s a nice banana in it for you if you spill the beans.
