EA's CEO Confirms That Battlefield 2042 Will Include Some Free Component

It's looking more and more like Battlefield 2042 will include some kind of free-to-play element. We first got a hint of that when the game was revealed in June, and in Electronic Arts' most recent investors' call, CEO Andrew Wilson seemed to confirm that some sort of free experience would be coming to this year's iteration of the mega-popular series.

In discussing Hazard Zone, the third of the title's "gameplay pillars," Wilson said that it "really forms the foundation for what we believe the future of a live service around Battlefield is, which over time will include a mobile launch, will include some free-to-anchor components." That comes from the transcript of the call but might be a slight error; other sources, which were probably listening in to the call live, used "free-to-enter" instead of "free-to-anchor," which makes more sense.

Remember that Hazard Zone was explicitly stated to not be a battle royale, so if it is the free-to-play experience inside BF2042, that throws things for a bit of a loop, as it would represent a departure from Battlefield's closest competitor, Call of Duty, with its Warzone mode. Then again, EA already has a very popular F2P battle royale under its banner, Apex Legends, so it's conceivable that the company doesn't want to directly compete with itself.

As for the other rumor regarding an EA title going free-to-play: Wilson was asked about Konami's eFootball going free-to-play and whether that would impact EA -- notably FIFA -- at all. Naturally, he offered no definitive answer, saying that they're "very closely cognizant of what competition is doing" and re-iterating his company's commitment "to our player base and delivering the most comprehensive, broad-based, authentic football game on the planet." And also delivering to them as many Ultimate Team packs as possible.