Earlier in the year, I opined that Battlefield V was still playing catch-up and desperately starved for new map content, which has traditionally been the lifeblood of the post-launch content. Four months later and even following the launch of the new Mercury map last week, if you don't include Firestorm's Halvoy the community is only playing with a paltry 10 maps in rotation – the number that both Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4 shipped with on launch day.
The entire community has continued to harp on this clear content deficit, and DICE is finally capitulating. Today, the studio launched a hype video showing six maps headed to Battlefield V in the coming months.
The June map, Al Sundan, takes the action back to North Africa, and looks to be the only map of the bunch focused on larger-scale warfare with tank and air support. The July map, Marita, is the second map set in the Grecian islands, featuring a vertical city space for close quarters warfare. In August we get two more maps unfortunately focued on close-quarters combat. Provence returns to the French countryside for some close quarters skirmishes in the town center, while Lofoten Islands heads to a Norwegian archipelago for a coastline firefight you may recognize from the Firestorm battle royale map.
The fifth map DICE teased, Operation Underground, looks to be a World War II variant of the popular Battlefield 3 map Operation Metro that moves the fight from France to Vienna – yet another close quarters fight. Sense a pattern? The trailer says this map won't be out until October. Last but not least, it looks like Battlefield is finally returning to the Pacific Theater in September for a fight between the Japanese and American factions. The trailer ends with Battlefield 1942 music and the familiar ping of an M1 Garand, so perhaps it's a recreation of one of that game's revered maps like Wake Island or Iwo Jima?
Will this late infusion of maps be enough to resuscitate the Battlefield community? We'll find out in the coming months, but its certainly the right step forward.