Battlefield 1943 coming to XBLA, PC and PSN this summer [update]

by Justin McElroy on Feb 5th 2009 9:48AM

If you're hoping to hone your Battlefield skills before the Bad Company returns later this year, you'll get your chance this summer when the series goes back to WWII with Battlefield 1943, a multiplayer game coming to XBLA, PSN [updated: and PC!]. Built on the same engine as Bad Company, the downloadable game will offer 24 players the chance to battle it out across Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.

Listen, we try to be skeptical of newly announced titles until they've proven themselves, but holy crap are we ever excited about this.

Oh yeah, and in other Battlefield news, the first screenshot of Bad Company 2 has been revealed. Check it out after the break.

Battlefield 1943

Click to embiggen

Source

Tags: battlefield, battlefield-1943, Battlefield-XBLA, dice, ea, Electronic-Arts, fps, Microsoft, pc, psn, xbla, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (96)

This could be a nice snack before BC2. Me likes.

Looks ridiculously sweet as I was a HUGE BF2 fan (so Wake Island looks lushious) but whats with the 24 player caps? I want 64 player caps, just like the PC version :D

Speaking as a former game dev:

It's mostly a performance bottleneck. PC versions can have higher player caps simply because they're faster. Even though we have fast dedicated servers that handle all of the server-side data, clients (aka, PCs and consoles) still have to process data received by the server at regular intervals. This space is limited, not just due to network bandwidth and latency, but because the client needs to accept the packet, process it, update and resend its own data.

And the client needs perform this turnaround as quickly as possible. Otherwise you have to start doing full resyncs to catch the client back up- most of the packets sent from the server are deltas, so they can be smaller. And you start to get clients teleporting, lagging, or dropping out due to network timeouts. It's not pretty.

Plus, it also helps that network controllers gaming PCs are much better than the ones found in consoles, due to having a much faster bus.

The current console generation (PS3, 360) are ~1/4 as fast (general processing-wise) as your typical gaming PC.

The clincher for this would be if the buildings are leveled by carpet bombing. If so, SOLD!

The building can be completely destroyed. Gamespot had a video up, I think it is called start select, or something, and they did mention that the building coud be completely destroyed.

Will this still have destructible environments I wonder? Who knows? God and DICE know.

I used to love going into 64-player servers on BF1942 and wreaking havoc with the tanks. Not only were they powerful, but they were faster than most tanks in other shooters. This will be a Day One for me.

sweet, but the player cap could at least been 32, because i think it was 64 on the pc. still freakin awsome though as an arcade game i hope this is a new trend what with cell factor doing the same thing.

WOW! I played BF1942 for ages on the PC.... nice to see a remake of some of the favourite levels on the new frostbite engine... wonder if they will use the battlefield veteran status/program on this....

linky: http://veteran.battlefield.com/

only battlefields i play was 2 and 2142 .. didn't care bout the first ones ... but i only own 2142 .. tho it's more of a Battlefield 2 title but at the .5 at the end

More like Battlefield 19f*cking awesome.

Totally agree! I enjoyed the hell out of BF2 and would love to get back to that gameplay on a console.

I just installed bf2 again this past Saturday. Its so addictive despite all the insta prone/jet bs that ive put in 40hrs already. Ill love to go back to 42 weapons on xbl and tear some shit up :D.

According to the website it is also coming to the "PC for download"

http://www.battlefield.com/1943/

Nah, BF2. Notice the plane comment.

Looks pretty but let's see how it plays first. The gameplay in that video looks awesome but if I know the Battlefield community, this is what I'll probably see in my first game - I'll get into a server, get kiled by a tank shell, respawn at a base, get artillery spammed to hell, spawn again, die from some camping lamer and finally, respawn at the main base, only to see half a dozen guys camping the plane spawn.

Call me cynical.

Admittedly that's a problem with the community, not the game itself though. Still, it makes the game not fun.

sounds like Bad Company

omg!!! Hell yes!!!!!!!!!

i want this. bad.

WANT!!! 24 players is good in itself but damn if it was 64...WOO

good grief, that looks awesome but i can only imagine how much MS will charge for this game. maybe our first 2400 point game? i'm only half joking too. 1600 might not be out of the question.

I agree. Arcade games should be free. Or very close to free. I would pay 20 MS points for that. But no more. I've got Aegis Wing! I don't need this stupid game.

am i the only one still waiting for battlefield 3?

No. I'm desperate for BF3 as well. I'm thoroughly dissapointed they are releasing another add on esque game instead of a true sequel. It's been 4 years and still no sign of a sequel to BF2.

I'm waiting too, but at least with this updated 1942 we can now make mad rushes at the start and shoot our teammates in the back if they get too close to the airplanes in higher definition graphics.
My general question is, what would BF3 bring? Better graphics I'm sure, but what setting? Vietnam? Korea? Has anyone seen a Korea War game at all?

Um...More modern Warfare? Since was does a Sequel go BACK in time (excluding W@W)

Battlefield Vietnam was released in 2004 Bailers.

Battlefield: American Revolution

Would be kick ASS

The only game where reloading takes longer then respawning

I know that there has been WWII, Vietnam, and Modern Combat era games. Then there was future wars (2142? Can't remember the exact title right now). What I'm saying is would they just re-boot battlefield 2, with new weapons or tricks, or try something different.
Seriously, I'm wondering what BF3 would offer other than an updated BF2. I loved BF2, so if they just upgrade that I'd be happy. But just wondering.

Personally I'd like to see a remake of 1942, with larger maps, new battlegrounds and all the other new-gen benefits (PC centric of course).
I have to say it was my favourite multiplayer experience ever, especially with all the mods made available for it. (I still think BF modern combat for 1942 and PoE for Vietnam match up to BF2 :p).

Erm, make that 'Desert Combat', not 'Modern Combat'.

watching this video makes me want to play some BF2 or BF1942.

no... ive been waiting on that forever. I get the feeling that there is not such thing though since pc games dont make money anymore. Maybe we'll see a battlefield 3 on the new xbox?

Where do I send my money to again???

the only thing that bums me out a bit is only 2 levels. who wants to bet they'll use that for pay dlc. just hope it's cheap so it doesn't feel like getting worked over on the DLC.

3 levels, but still, for a downloadable game with that good of graphics its a pretty good amount of content, and I don't know about the other ones, but wake island is a really fun map.

Looks great, and intense.

Notice the Gangs of New York music at the end?

Minute one purchase on PC.

Perfect timing. I've been thinking lately about how much I miss me some Battlefield action. I had a lot of fun with 1942, and dug BF2 as well. I just hope the engine is improved so that the infantry combat feels more smooth like other FPS's. I've always hated how infantry combat felt in the Battlefield games.

Hm, this + Battlefield Heroes is going to be quite nice.

This is warhawk...with nicer explosions and more realistic planes.

yeah total warhawk ripoff dude. i remember playing warhawk on ps3 back in 2000 before any these battlefield games came out.

It's nothing like warhawk whatsoever. I recommend you research the battlefield series.

i remember playing warhawk on the ps1 in the 90s. is that on the psn store? i get what's being said though, it's like when people forget about kill.switch

Whoa and a downloadible game to boot! Hmmm, wonder what the price will be tho.

And I thought this year was going to be quiet.

It looks awesome and B:BC2 Kickass.

I never got all the achievements some of them requiere you to be in a clan or something.

I hope only the gimped console versions are limited to 24 players. Otherwise, as much as I loved BF1942 (it's probably my favorite FPS), I might have to pass this up until they address that.

What's the deal with the BF franchise? BF2 got some crappy expansions and then they rushed out BF2142, but since then all we get is some downloadable crap like this and BF Heroes? I hope BF2142's lackluster performance didn't get them thinking we were sick of the franchise as a whole!

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Battlefield 1943 coming to XBLA, PC and PSN this summer [update]