DICE wants to make Battlefield 4 a sport

Battlefield 4 was on show at this year's rAge expo in South Africa and Daniel "zh1nt0" Matros, one of the game's producers, has outlined the studio's plans for making the shooter a viable E-sports game.

Matros was interviewed by Youtube user "Ph4tso" at the event. When asked where he sees the game in the competitive scene he replied, "I see Battlefield 4 as a sport, something it hasn't done before.

"So, making it a sport means working with big leagues, working with the community on it, working with players, see what they want. We’re bringing out spectator mode – very well sought after – the Domination game mode, Defuse game mode, perfect competitive game modes, and at the end of the day, the crowd decides what they want to see.”

Defuse, a first for the series, is going to be one of the seven multiplayer modes launching with Battlefield 4. The mode is practically designed for competitive play and it pits ten players (5vs.5) in a game of arm or defuse the bomb, with no re-spawns.

Matros stressed that they're not changing the core mechanics of the shooter to accommodate for the competitive aspects, "making it a sport means that Battlefield can’t change from what Battlefield is. So, suppression’s in there, you have big open levels, you have small levels, you have tight urban settings, you have huge landscapes, you can do anything you want.

"But the sport remains a 5 vs. 5 offline, that’s what we’re going for. And we’re just going to feel the crowd, see what the crowd likes, see what the casters like, see what the casters think of the game in general," he added.

Battlefield 4 is currently in open beta, you can read Dave's impressions of it here.

The game is out October 29, November 1 for PC, Xbox 360, PS3. Next-gen versions will launch alongside the respective machines.

Thanks, MP1st.