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EA’s Battlefield 1 is set to get even bigger in 2017 with the addition of eight new maps by the end of the year, the publisher has announced at its EA Play event in LA.
The first map, Nivelle Nights, is due this month, while the second, Prise de Tahure, will arrive in July.
The other six will launch this September as part of a major new expansion entitled ‘In the Name of the Tsar,’ which features brand new weapons, assignments and, of course, the Russian army. One of these maps, the snowy ravines of Lupkow Pass, will be available for players to go hands on with over the next three days at EA’s Play event.
The expansion will see players take on the First World War’s biggest front, as well as the world’s largest army. Within the Russian Army, players will also be able to get to grips with the Women’s Battalion of Death, represented here as a scout class.
11 new weapons will also be on hand, including the Russian-themed Mosin-Nagant M91, the Russian Standard 1912 grenade and all-new melee weapons. New vehicles will also be on offer, from heavy bombers, armoured cars and landing craft.
A new game mode is also due to arrive in the form of Supply Drop. Here, players will be fighting for supplies in fast-paced skirmishes on the Eastern Front as planes airdrop packages around the map.
All this will be available as part of Battlefield 1’s Premium Pass.
In The Name of the Tsar is the second major expansion to Battlefield 1, the first of which arrived earlier this year in March in the form of They Shall Not Pass.
Battlefield 1 debuted at No.1 in the UK weekly charts when it launched last October, and it continues to make regular appearances in the UK Top 40, charting at No.21 last week. Admittedly, Activision’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare continues to outperform it at UK retail, charting at No.13 last week, but on digital platforms EA’s World War I shooter is way out in front, generating significantly more revenue than its Activision rival both in March and April. Come September, we wouldn’t be surprised if EA continued to hold on to its lead.
