The next war will be
one of adaptation.
DICE / Role: Design Director / World Director
We developed a resonant and plausible world for a near-future global conflict — shaping its characters, locations, vehicles, weaponry, and media. A coherent history tied it all together: the soft values, the tone, and the voice of the experience.
This opportunity involved inventing new ways to convey a creative setting to the Battlefield player base.
This would be a new kind of war, fought by a new kind of soldier.
Establishing 2042
Once we created the setting and embedded it into the game, we worked backwards to establish it in the mind of our players. Both the game opening experience and the media campaign for the game had to convey an immersive, believeable and intriguing setting.
We partnered with director Will Adams at Goodbye Kansas to produce the game opening sequence.
Traditionally, Battlefield has drawn on historical wars. The kind with hardback coffee-table books.
But this time, there wasn’t one. We had to make it ourselves.
As World Director, I partnered with stakeholders across all disciplines to define the setting of Battlefield 2042 - from the geopolitical logic behind each flashpoint map to the tone of its media voices and the worldview of each nation. It had to feel plausible enough to feel inevitable.
Seen Through Human Eyes
There is no single player component to Battlefield 2042. Establishing the world and characters transitioned to other means. I partnered with our marketing group to fully develop our setting in ways that we could reach users.
The highest profile part of the campaign was the short film “BATTLEFIELD: EXODUS”. We were fortunate enough to bring Michael K Williams back to Battlefield universe, and to work with the same cinematic director pair we partnered with in Battlefield 1: Fredrik Åkerström and Markus Kryler.