Battlefield Labs is the new CTE. Electronic Arts looks to finally bring back the community into their testing and development.
Battlefield (BF) has been in the news lately, with talks about the next game in the series. With the failures of BF 2042, the next game in the series would have its work cut out to appease the fans. Ever since the Vince Zampella interview from 2024, there has been talk of how the game would return to its high point – with many aspects that pleased the community. One such aspect would be the return of the Community Testing Environment (CTE), which has now been confirmed as Battlefield Labs.
What was the CTE?
Back in the days when BF was still a title that people threw thousands of hours into, we had the CTE. The CTE allowed players to test a multitude of new gameplay features that could possibly make their way into the live games themselves. This was utilized for BF 4, BF 1, BF Heroes, and BF Hardline. The feature was an amazing way for the developers to keep the game in line with the community standards and was definitely something highly appreciated. Sadly, BF V did not get the same treatment, and the CTE faded away into nothingness.
Now, with the next BF game on the distant horizon, Electronic Arts (EA) has confirmed that the CTE will be making a return, with the name changed to BF Labs. This will work in a similar way to the previous iteration, with the community able to test various features and give feedback to the developers. Although there is a lot of skepticism towards the next game, this is a promising step forward for the franchise. Players are now just hoping that these are not just hollow words and that the community feedback will be of the utmost importance.
One final aspect to note is that the franchise itself has never had testing this early by the community before. The CTE itself would run alongside the game rather than as an alpha or best test environment, meaning that this is something new for BF.
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Signing up for Battlefield Labs
Registration for the testing environment is open already. EA has stated that they will require new and veteran players to play and provide feedback for the game. Players can simply head over to the BF Labs website and follow the links.
However, there is a major caveat right now, with the signup page taking people to a queue, which is nearly 100,000 strong, at the time of writing. While this may take some time, it does show that everyone is eager to check out just what the new game has in store.
Finally, the video announcing BF Labs included some pre-alpha game footage, with the franchise’s well-known destruction being one of the major takeaways. While we do not have a ton of information on the next title, we do know that there will be a single-player experience returning to the game.
For further updates and information on BF and its next title, stay tuned to esports.gg.
