Battlefield 1 – hands-on with the future (and past) of the military shooter

Developer EA Dice thrilled fans when it announced the Battlefield series is returning to historical conflict. The E3 demo suggests it was the right decision

For almost 10 years, a small group of staff within the EA Dice development studio have been pitching a first world war version of Battlefield. During that time, the military shooter series was moving inexorably in the other direction, toward more and more technologically advanced scenarios. But after Battlefield 4, the heads of the studio looked at the latest version of the pitch, and gave it some thought.

"When we came out of Battlefield 4, we knew we wanted to challenge ourselves creatively, and to challenge the player a little bit more," says the senior producer, Aleksander Grindal. "When I first saw the first world war pitch I had some initial reservations, but after putting it through various iterations, they had done a good job of removing my worries. I saw the opportunities and started researching the war myself. The more I learned, the more I realised this was what we needed to do."