Alongside rumors of Activision planning a battle royale mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, hints of The Division 2 coming with its own battle royale map, and the continued launch of several other spin-off products like Paladins Royale and the new Radical Heights, it's safe to say that the battle royale genre is becoming increasingly saturated as companies try and cash in on its popularity. Throw one more on the pile though, as DICE and EA are also considering a similar game mode in the next Battlefield game, currently called Battlefield 5.
Although the mode is said to be only in the prototyping stage at the moment, VentureBeat has it that the game mode will likely be a part of the next Battlefield game. However, the caveat is that it won't be ready for release if and when it does debut, so it will likely launch as a DLC or free game pack further down the line.
As much as Battlefield fans might not like the idea of DICE spending time developing for this incredibly popular genre, you can't necessarily blame it for at least trying. The sudden rise of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite over the past year, especially in the mainstream gaming scene, have caught everyone by surprise. Tens of millions of gamers all over the world now enjoy those titles and every developer out there is scared that if they don't join the trend they'll be left behind.
The question is, whether this trend represents a seismic shift in the kinds of games people want to play, or if like a number of other half-genres over the past two decades, whether we'll see players return to the mainstays before long.
Still, as single player shooters become more costly and harder to justify developing and genres like RTS being distilled down into more pure forms like tower-defence and MOBA, do Battle Royale games represent the kind of shooter gameplay that most players want to enjoy, with other aspects of the genre likely to peel off into their own niches in the near future?