EA has done what I was starting to worry was impossible: Make a rational, popular design decision around Battlefield 6 classes.
Earlier this year, the studio caught heat for a series of dev blogs detailing how Battlefield 6's class system would carry over an unpopular Battlefield 2042 change that allowed all classes to use all weapons.
"We envision the future of Battlefield classes to be a series of interconnected systems and fundamentals that shape your role on the field, while granting you the freedom to customize how you execute that role," EA said at the time.
Today, in a brief X post on the official Battlefield account, EA changed its tune.
"Open Weapons vs Closed Weapons. Why not both? Starting at Open Beta, players can choose official playlists with Signature Weapons locked to class, or not. More to come."
It's a somewhat surprising U-turn, considering the publisher reinforced its "weapons free-for-all" philosophy in a follow-up X article just a week and a half ago, but you could argue the writing was on the wall with how that article danced around the topic of weapon restrictions.
The choice to play with classic Battlefield classes—where your selection of guns is defined by your role—is great news for folks who liked Battlefield the way it was before it developed an inferiority complex with Call of Duty. DICE has been talking up the idea that it's gadgets, like medkits and rocket launchers, that define a class, but I submit that an Engineer holding a sniper rifle is wrong on a molecular level.
Now, we traditionalists have to put out class-exclusive weaponry where our mouths are. DICE will no doubt be monitoring which playlists, open or closed weapons, are more popular in the upcoming Battlefield 6 open beta (the dates of which are still to come, but leaks suggest early August).
The prevailing ruleset could define Battlefield 6's final direction come launch day.
