Battlefield 6 got off to an incredible start. The shooter sequel attracted millions of players, positive reviews, and an overriding sentiment that it was a wonderful return to form. Battlefield had lost its way in recent years, thanks to poor launches and trend chasing that saw it abandon what made beloved entries so iconic to begin with, but now it was back.
So when 6 came around with familiar gameplay mechanics and without so much of the baggage that held back 5 and 2142, it seemed destined for success. I hated the glacial progression system and couldn’t help but notice several inconsistent firearms and bits of equipment, but the moment-to-moment action was fun and familiar enough that I saw myself sticking with Battlefield 6 for a long, long time.
Unfortunately, in a world where every live-service juggernaut and triple-A release is vying for every single piece of spare time you have, this enthusiasm didn’t last. EA failing to deliver seasonal updates at a consistent pace didn’t help matters either, leaving Battlefield 6 to grow old way faster than anyone could have anticipated. Fast-forward less than a year, and it sits at Mixed reviews on Steam and holds a steady, yet far from massive, audience.
The solution to this fading interest? Let us pre-order battle passes! Wait, what do you mean that’s a terrible idea?!
Why Is Battlefield 6 Letting Us Pre-Order Battle Passes?
If you’re a multiplayer game of any significance nowadays, chances are you offer a battle pass for players to progress through with each passing season. They might have a certain theme or revolve around a new hero, but either way, they act as an incentive to ensure you keep playing and continue earning cool cosmetic options or gameplay upgrades. Go back in time a decade or so and most players were happy with a progression system where you got a higher level, new weapons, and skins — but gamers of today are much more expectant.
It’s why games like Call of Duty and Battlefield had to radically reinvent themselves when giants like Fortnite came along, and also why Battlefield 6 was so universally praised for returning to an old-school realm of thinking. But it can’t sustain itself forever on being like the games we played back on the PS3 and Xbox 360. It ultimately has to abide by the same obnoxious trends it once promised to stand against.
The Battlefield 6 home screen now offers an option for players to pre-order the next season’s battle pass. It’s a minuscule part of the menu, but the fact this option is offered by the game at all feels like a bad sign. The next season is expected to launch on May 12, so I imagine EA sees this as an opportunity to attract players ahead of release while also gaining a rough idea of what exact numbers it can expect in the next couple of months. From a business perspective, I get it, but personally it is hard not to feel like players are being treated like predictable moneybags more than ever.
We are no longer expected to play a video game and walk away once the credits roll, but to treat them as constant sources of dopamine where the hits don’t come from satisfying gameplay mechanics and stories, but seasonal unlocks and updates which offer a good reason to stick around. That is, until major developers and publishers decide it’s not fit for purpose anymore and the next annual installment comes along. All of a sudden, much of that time, money, and personal investment we put in means nothing.
For casual consumers, I can totally understand the comfort that comes from sitting down after a hard day of work to play an online shooter where you are consistently progressing and lack the worry of keeping up with a complicated story and mechanics. You point, shoot, chat with a group of friends, and make your way through a battle pass that rewards you for all of that time.
It just sucks that the modern gaming industry has brainwashed us into thinking this is the new norm, and not a live service slowly but surely convincing us to stick around and keep on putting time into an experience that will leave them behind in a heartbeat. It’s always harder to stomach when it’s an annual (or thereabouts) paid game like Battlefield and not an online free game that you can buy extra bells and whistles for.
Extending pre-orders to battle passes — which is an anti-consumer practice in itself — is a special kind of corporate greed. Please give us your money ahead of time for a battle pass filled with digital unlockables that are designed to keep you from walking away. Battlefield 6 remains a fun game to play, but it feels like the focus is now less on delivering exciting new maps, weapons, and modes and more on figuring out ways to keep us engaged no matter what.
I hope pre-ordering battle passes don’t become the norm, and we aren’t expected to hand over money for a seasonal offering we know nothing about at the point of sale. Games need to make money, but this is ridiculous.
Battlefield 6
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83/100 Critics Rec: 89%
- Released
- October 10, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, In-App Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Battlefield Studios
- Publisher(s)
- EA
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- FPS, War & Military, Action
