Blueprint for Future BF & How to make $1 BILLION more...

TL;DR

1. Introduce a more MMO(-ish) experience.

Imagine a 50 v 50 or 64 v 64 server, or skew that number with a 32 defenders v 96 attackers server with an Operation Overlord D-Day Normandy beach invasion as its highlight. A huge player count is a massively desirable feature to the BF franchise, and it would be a huge upgrade. The mere thought of playing a huge D-Day map with a 100+ player count is something that players can immerse themselves into. We can do the same for an "Eagles Nest" game mode where a relatively few player count defends a high point against a huge horde of attackers.

We can even go bigger and have a crazy MMO "Grand Event" wherein it's a 200 v 200 (or 100 defenders v 300 attackers) server one weekend a month, or make it a biweekly or weekly event (Friday Night Battlefield, anyone?). This'll engage gamers even more and they'll feel the intensity of the invasion of Normandy or other operations by magnitudes more. This will attract a huge gamer crowd, new or otherwise, and keep everyone on their toes.

2. Focus on quality IP.

Take your time and go over 2 years with game development for non-EA Sports games such as BF. Here's one way to do it for the BF series. For year 1, make a historically based BF game. 2 years after that, go to modern based BF. And continue alternating every 2 years. Even though a 2-year release cycle is something that's been done in the past, with a long run blueprint for where we're headed, DICE / EA will have a much greater amount of time to prepare and develop the games. In other words, there isn't a proof of concept of title ideas eating into development time. That gives us up to 4 whole years to focus on quality game development for each BF title. So, for example, you have BFV now - the next step would be to make a modern game under the title Bad Company 3. Then alternate to a historic, BFVI (e.g. the vastly unexplored gaming era of the Korean War, assuming that the impact on the Chinese market would be "acceptable"). In fact, this development sequence would accommodate the demands of both modern and historic shooter gamers just enough so that they don't complain about not having the shooter game of their choice, as you're going from BFV > BC3 > BFVI (Korean) > BC4 > BFVII (Vietnam), etc. At least one goal to strive for is: while maintaining the same quality and content, release these games with 50% fewer bugs. This is ambitious, but with more time to work on these games, the reception from the gaming world will reap huge positive PR and ultimately, greater sales and profits.

3. Remove the entire toxicity staff and add a temporary mute option for gamers.

In short, you save millions from unnecessary staff who are tasked with censoring people when players can do it better. Gamers can simply set a temporary mute of the player in question for the specific match. The muted individual will cool off during the next match, or else the player can re-mute. This is self-regulating. Whereas, with the current censorship model, you still have players going around the censors with misspelled words, which then prompts the censorship team to censor those misspelled words, if they even catch those words or if they're harmless words out of context. Remember, this is an M-rated game so censoring borders on unnecessary and futility. Then, use the savings from this pivot to hire more developers to produce and maintain higher quality IP. And no, you don't have to fire anyone - staff them elsewhere. For a more in-depth analysis on this topic, please check out the previous thread here.

4. Competitive gaming and huge cash prizes

It's obvious to me that EA / DICE is trying to break into the e-Sports world with the BF franchise, with a hard focus on squads as teams. Cash prizes and a hugely competitive experience will draw in larger crowds. The big challenge, of course, is that the right format and execution are crucial. Will we see this with BF's version of Battle Royale? Other game modes we currently have? A modified game mode such as Squad Conquest with one relatively large squad and a no-spawn-camp map design? A brand new, unannounced mode altogether? We saw this attempt with BF1's Incursions mode, but it didn't jibe well (for me, it had a large part to do with the fixed classes, different gameplay feel than the base multiplayer game, and preset loadouts that didn't allow for enough customization - remember, competitive players will adapt and choose the right weapons and gadgets based on what the opponents choose and what worked in previous matches). 

5. Allow for more player-made content. Let players create cosmetics for soldier weapons and gear. This wouldn't necessarily be the weapons and equipped items themselves, but rather the skins on them. You'll be able to engage the community a lot more, save money and time from developing cosmetics, focus more on improving the mechanics and bugs in the game, and have way more content get added. Of course, you'll need a gatekeeper to determine which skins to add. If we take this even further by creating a supply-demand based cosmetics market, then the community is sending instant feedback as to what are the best cosmetics. In other words, the popularity of those goods will directly determine which cosmetics are the best, and you'll get direct feedback from the community by looking at price levels without having to guesstimate as to what skins players want. Then you make more of those types of skins, or at the very least move in that direction. If this becomes immensely successful, then expand this further into actual era-specific weapons, vehicles, etc. Overall, this feature will allow for far more content than ever before, and you actually save more money doing it.