Battlefield 2042 Has No Plans for Ranked Mode or Esports at Launch

A Battlefield 2042 developer explained why the team behind the game does not want to focus on esports or a ranked mode for the upcoming shooter game. While it is one of the most anticipated games of 2021, the Battlefield franchise was never known for its competitive scene. However, a new Portal mode that is coming to the game has piqued players' interest and it made fans wonder if the developers want to create a ranked mode for Battlefield 2042. The Senior Design Director at Ripple Effect Studios, Justin Wiebe revealed that there are no plans for esports at launch. However, that might change depending on how much interest from players there is in the game’s Portal mode.

Why Battlefield 2042 will not break into esports

Senior Design Director at Ripple Effect Studios, Justin Wiebe detailed why the developers have no plan for esports at launch. He said “There’s no plan to have any kind of Ranked or esport mode at launch.” However, he is open to suggestions from the community and added “if that’s something that’s important to the community, we’d like to hear about it. And we’ll kind of see what happens after that.”

If Battlefield 2042 does happen to have a competitive side to it, it will be in its upcoming Portal mode. The flagship modes will feature up to 128 players on a single map with 64 players at each time. While there are no plans whatsoever to turn the game into an esport, if the game did develop a competitive community, it would be quite the ordeal for organizations to field rosters of 64 players each. But there is some serious buzz around the competitive modes and tournaments that players could create in Battlefield Portal, a mode that will allow players to create custom modes in. It could offer a competitive environment for players to test their skills with smaller team sizes.

Thomas ‘Tompen’ Andersson, a game developer at Ripple Effect, revealed in an interview that players would be able to create their own competitions in Portal mode. Portal servers can be password protected and only players who have access to the lobbies can join in. Andersson mentioned at the time that “we need to support to make sure the competitive players feel we’re listening to them and building the tools they need to have good competitions.”