PS5 – PC, PS5, Xbox Release Date, Beta, Price, Specialists

So far, Battlefield 2042 is looking good. But while it’s harking back to some classic Battlefield design, the series is also adopting some radical shifts this year. Here’s everything that’s been announced about the game so far, including detail about the maps, cross-play, specialists, cross-progression, price and more.

Battlefield 2042: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X cross-play and cross-progression

This year’s Battlefield will allow PC and console players to mix, although there’s a huge caveat. Due to the size and heft required for the game’s 128-player battles, only PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S players will be able to match up in a lobby. PS4 and Xbox One-era consoles will get crossplay, but those matches will be limited to 64 player battles only.

DICE also confirmed in a blog post that PC and console users can opt-out from cross-play, if you don’t want to run into mouse and keyboard warriors while you’re playing with a controller. PlayStation and Xbox users will always be matched up, however, and PC users will always match with other PC users regardless. DICE added that they will be supporting cross-purchases and cross-progression for all platforms:

Alongside cross-play we’re also building cross-progression and cross-commerce for Battlefield 2042, which will be shared across all platforms and travel with you wherever you go. For example, your unlocked progress and purchases in your PlayStation copy of the game will carry over onto the Xbox or PC version, and vice versa.

Battlefield 2042: PC Requirements

If you’re playing on PC, here’s the minimum and recommended requirements. You’ll want a decent graphics card: 2000-series Nvidia GPUs are now the baseline “recommendation” for Battlefield 2042. DirectX 12 will be a baseline this time around, too.

Minimum specs

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10
• Processor: AMD FX-8350 / Core i5 6600K
• RAM: 8GB
• Video Memory: 4GB
• Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon RX 560 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
• DirectX: 12

Recommended specs

• OS: 64-bit Windows 10
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 / Intel Core i7 4790
• RAM: 16GB
• Video Memory: 8GB
• Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
• DirectX: 12

Battlefield 2042: Campaign/Singleplayer

Battlefield 2042 will not have a singleplayer mode this time around, DICE has confirmed. The series will allow players to fill servers with bots — and  your progression and unlocks from those games will still count.

Battlefield 2042: Open Beta

DICE announced BF2042 would have an open beta in the months leading to launch, and it’s since been confirmed the open beta will go live sometime in September. It’ll be accessible on all platforms. Those who preorder any version of the game will get “early access to open beta”, although there’s no word as to how early that access will be.

Battlefield 2042: Modes

The standard Conquest mode returns in Battlefield 2042 as All-Out Warfare — it wouldn’t be a Battlefield game without it — but Firestorm, Battlefield’s battle royale spin-off, will not return. 

Along with a squad-based mode called Hazard Zone, DICE will also announce a new mode called Ripple Effect. Specifics of both modes are expected to be unveiled during EA Play on July 23 Australian time.

Battlefield 2042: Portal

The biggest new “mode” this time around is Battlefield Portal, a sandbox mode with six classic maps and support for 2042‘s seven initial launch maps.

Players will be able to customise the experience through a “Builder” mode, which lets people customise victory conditions, team scale, what gear, specialists and vehicles players can use, visibility settings including the minimap and HUD, what teams will be represent and other core Battlefield rules.

Here’s the full list of content that players will be able to access through Battlefield Portal at launch:

Maps

• Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein from Battlefield 1942
• Arica Harbor and Valparaiso from Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals from Battlefield 3

Weapons

• 40+ Weapons from 3 Theaters of War
• M1 Garand, Panzerschreck, G3, M416 and more
• Plus the inclusion of Battlefield 2042’s All-Out Warfare Arsenal

Vehicles

• 40+ Vehicles from 3 Theaters of War
• The Spitfire and B17 Bomber make their return alongside modern hardware such as the Quad Bike and Little Bird
• Plus the inclusion of Battlefield 2042’s All-Out Warfare array of vehicles

Gadgets

• 30+ Gadgets from 3 Theaters of War
• Reconnaissance items such as the MAV and Radio Beacon will be available as gadget selections alongside the Defibrillator and EOD Bot
• Plus the inclusion of Battlefield 2042’s Gadgets

Armies

• Classic Factions will be making their return in Battlefield Portal as you remember them, allowing you the ability to mix and match between 7 different armies from the Classic titles as well as Battlefield 2042’s Specialists
• Armies such as 1942’s UK, US, and Germany as well as Bad Company 2’s US and Russia will feature exclusively in Battlefield Portal

Soldiers

• The return of Factions to Battlefield Portal, we will also mean that we are bringing back soldier archetypes as you know them to be within their relevant titles. As an example, Battlefield 3’s Assault, Engineer, Support and Recon roles make their return in Battlefield Portal

And here’s what will be accessible via the Builder editor:

Maps – Pick from the selection of 13 available maps

Modes – Choose from a range of game modes – weather it be more established modes like Rush or Conquest, or starting with something completely custom

Mode Settings – Fine tune various details within the mode including:

• Factions – choose which soldiers, weapons and vehicles can compete on the battlefield
• Mobility – Toggle players’ ability to Aim Down Sights, go prone and more o Visibility – Toggle Heads’ Up Display and minimap visibility for players
• Arsenal – Restrict weapons, Specialists, gear and vehicles that players have access to in matches
• Scale – Adjust the balance of each battle by controlling the max number of players in each team as well as which weapons they have access to
• Team Select – The ability to put different teams and eras of soldiers against each other
• Weapon/Gadget/Vehicle Restrictions – Fine tune which soldiers should be available from eat faction, which weapons and attachments they can use, which vehicles are available and how to access them
• Settings – Players can use these to refine the experience they want to make, toggling options liek core game mode rules, soldier settings, vehicle settings and UI settings
• Logic Editor – Additional options to cater to unique experiences, allowing players to define rules, set victory conditions, team scale and specific in-game events.

Battlefield 2042 sectors

Because the next-gen consoles and PC will get maps to accommodate 128 players, those maps will work a little differently to regular Battlefield games. In a mechanic seen in other WW2 and milsim-style shooters (like Hell Let Loose), Battlefield 2042 will have sectors within a map.

These sectors effectively function as mini-battlefields, and teams will have to conquer each sector in order to move forward. “Each of these Sectors consist of a grouping of control points, filling out each map with even more battles happening concurrently during a match,” DICE wrote.

Battlefield 2042’s Specialists

Classes have been dropped in Battlefield 2042. In their place are specialists with special abilities and traits unique to each character.

The benefit of the change is that you can change your specialists’ individual loadout to whatever you want, so you won’t end up in scenarios where players feel like they have to play an Engineer just to progress on certain maps — anyone can equip the necessary weapons/support kit they need.

Specialists, however, will naturally have particular benefits that suit certain roles. Four specialists have been announced so far:

• Pyotr “Boris” Guskovsky: An engineer-type character, Boris is equipped with a sentry gun that spots and shoots enemies within a certain radius. Boris’s passive will automatically spot any target the sentry gun locks onto, advertising that enemy’s location to all allies.
• Wikus “Casper” Van Daele: The recon/sniper specialist, Casper’s passive is a movement sensor that lets them know when enemies are nearby. That sensor triggers when Casper deploys their Recon Drone, which spots targets for allies and lock-on weapons like anti-vehicle/AA guns. The drone can emit EMP blasts as well.
• Maria Falck: Maria can heal better than others: anyone healed by Maria revives at full health, instead of half health, while Maria can also fire a syringe pistol to heal allies at range. (The syringe will damage enemies in a pinch, too.)
• Webster Mackay: Webster is the assault-type character, equipped with a grappling hook and able to run faster while aiming down sights.

Battlefield 2042 will ship with 10 specialists at launch, with four specialists to be added to the game in BF2042‘s first year of DLC:

In our first year of live service, we will deliver four Seasons, with four Battle Passes, four new Specialists, along with more fresh content.

Battlefield 2042’s maps

The game will ship with 7 maps at launch for its conquest (or All-Out Warfare) mode:

• Orbital (French Guiana)
• Hourglass (Doha, Qatar)
• Kaleidoscope (Songdo, South Korea, pictured above)
• Mainfest (Brani Island, Singapore)
• Discarded (Alang, India) 
• Breakaway (Queen Maud Land, Antarctica)
• Renewal (Eastern Desert, Egypt)

DICE has also published cinematic screenshots of all seven maps so far, which you can see below.

Battlefield 2042 vehicles

Players will be able to spawn vehicles at their location in this year’s Battlefield, although you can spawn directly in a vehicle too if available. In a move borrowed from the Battlefront games, each team will have a cap on how many vehicles they can have — and your vehicle trigger is subject to a cooldown timer. (It’s not known how long that timer is just yet, or what the exact vehicle/aircraft limits are.)

Don’t expect much in the way of naval combat in Battlefield 2042, though. DICE has confirmed that on-water warfare was not a focus for launch, although they may revisit it in later years with specific expansions and/or maps.

Battlefield 2042 features on PC

DICE has always pushed the edge of PC tech, so it’s no surprise that they’re working with Nvidia again to implement DLSS, ray-tracing and the Nvidia Reflex latency optimisation tech for launch.

AMD has confirmed that Frostbite, EA’s studio-wide engine and the backbones of all modern Battlefield games, will support FSR. We don’t know whether it’ll be supported at launch. Nvidia’s announcement, after all, says they are “the official Battlefield 2042 PC graphics platform partner“.

Will Battlefield 2042 have Australian servers?

Yes: like all Battlefield releases, there will be local servers for players on all platforms. It’s worth noting that — and this again is a universal feature — BF2042 will fill servers with AI bots if there aren’t enough players to make sure matches are full.

Battlefield 2042 release date, price

Battlefield 2042 will launch on October 22 for Xbox Series X and S, PS4, PS5 and Xbox One. PC users won’t get access to the game until October 23, 4:00am AEDT, according to the unlock time on EA’s Origin page.

However, some users will get access early if they pay for the more expensive digital editions. Battlefield 2042 will be available from October 15 for anyone who orders the Gold Edition on PC or console.

If you’re playing on PC, you can access it through Origin or Steam. The cheapest deal for Battlefield 2042 in Australia digitally is through Fanatical, which is selling standard editions of BF2042 for $68.63. (These keys unlock through Origin, however.) Amazon are also selling the PC version of Battlefield 2042 for $69.

The best price for consoles is through Mighty Ape, which has the Xbox Series X and PS5 editions available for $74. Amazon has the next best price for PS5 and Xbox Series S/X at $79.90, and the Xbox One/PS4 editions for $73.90. Most other retailers at the time of writing are charging $89 or higher.

This post has been updated with more information since its initial publication.