Battlefield doesn’t take itself quite as seriously as you might think. It’s a series that has been consistent with silly things over the years, and has cemented a fairly solid relationship with Easter eggs – which are, for the uninitiated, kind of hidden jokes or secrets hidden in the game.
Battlefield 6 alone plays as a ‘best of’ for Easter eggs, with rare reload animations and even the drivable couch making a comeback. One of the maps coming with Season 5 is Area 51, which, as I’m sure everyone knows, is a place filled with mystery and withheld information. Surely this is a prime spot for some hidden extras.
I spoke to Nicholas Bombray, who is part of the Seasonal Creative team that cooks up these new experiences for Battlefield players, and asked him about the secrets that find their way into Battlefield.
“I cannot confirm nor deny any Easter egg in Area 51,” Bombay, much like the American government over the years, denies any knowledge of hidden goodies in Area 51. I wanted to know a bit more about the process of injecting these secrets into Battlefield – in what part of the design process does someone suggest adding pizza boxes into the tunnels because they love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
“So there’s no real unique way to go about this. This is what’s fun about Easter eggs.” Bombay goes on to tell of a member of staff that might go rogue, “Sometimes someone just builds it on his own, not telling anybody, and presents that software. We’re like, oh, should we ship that? Can we ship that?”
Over the years, a mystique has built up around Battlefield and these discoverable treats. Whether that’s a megalodon or a yeti in the mountains, nobody glances over a Battlefield map without looking a bit deeper. What do those four sticks mean? Why are those bricks piled up in that way? Is that an alien skull?
I think Bombray knows something; I just can’t prove it. “They materialize one way or another,” he says. Looks like I’m going to have to go over Area 51 with a fine-tooth comb, as if I wasn’t going to already.