Electronic Arts has announced Battlefield 1943, a new Battlefied game in the works at DICE and due to hit the store shelves this summer, for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Using the same Frostbite™ engine, Battlefield 1943 takes players back to WWII. The game offers endless hours of 24 player multiplayer action over three classic and tropic locations; Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Delivering the award-winning through-the-gun and vehicle warfare online experience DICE is best recognized for, Battlefield 1943 will have players battling in ruthless aerial dog fights and intense trench combat. Players can see the game in action at New York Comic Con (Booth #1441) from February 6th-8th.

Even at this early stage, Battlefield 1943 is incredibly fun to play. It possesses all of the hallmarks of a great Battlefield game, and the Frostbite engine offers the graphics that you'd expect in a full retail release

Planned for release on XBLA, PSN and PC this summer, 1943 will support play for up to 24 players and feature three of the series' best maps: Iwo Jima, Guadal Canal and the ever-popular Wake Island itself. All of that for between £10 and £15.

Despite these initial niggles, DICE is keen to point out to us in our session that 1943 is still a hardcore game. It's not Battlefield Heroes (which is running on a very different model, it says) and it's not for casual players. A good team will still destroy a rookie one and the developer's even introducing private game and clan options - a highly requested pair of features in the original Bad Company.

Though that's basically the same as the original Battlefield, there are some other new features in store for the sequel. First, there's a new bomber shack on the islands that can be used to call in a bomber formation to attack the island. When you enter the bomb shack, your view will transition to an inbound squadron of three bombers. The player can steer them left or right as they move over the island, and then switch to a bomb sight view to drop the payload. Then the player exits the bomb structure, which has to recharge before it can be used again. The bombers can be attacked by enemy fighters, which gives pilots more to do than strafe and bomb the infantry and vehicles on the island.

Player limits are capped at 12 on 12 for all matches because those are the numbers that the Frostbite engine handles best. The numbers might get bumped up on the PC, but that's not a sure thing. The team says there's no possibility of cross-platform play owing to the balance issues created by different input devices.

Right now there's no plan to include other battles in the game but, given the number of amazing levels in the original game and the producer's obvious excitement when we pressed them about Tobruk, Kursk and Market Garden, we're sure that the possibility exists for future content releases down the road.

While speaking with Battlefield 1943 producer Gordon Van Dyke at New York Comic Con, Blend Games learned what you should expect to pay for the Xbox Live Arcade/PSN/PC shooter, if it'll fit on your hard drive, and whether or not you'll be able to buy it in stores.

For Xbox 360 and PS3, you'll only be able to purchase the game digitally. However, for the PC, EA still apparently hasn't decided whether or not they'll release boxed copies of the game. Whether or not you can pick up a BF 1943 disc at your local games store, they will definitely be selling it digitally. Prior to sitting down with Van Dyke, Blend Games also spoke briefly with EA Games publicist Kelly Ekins who confirmed that a decision hadn't been made regarding boxed copies but that they'd have those details soon.

When asked about pricing, Van Dyke said that "Right now we haven't nailed that down. But we're going to be around the pricing of premium downloads for Xbox Live Arcade like Braid or Penny Arcade."

We then asked for a clarification, as the first Penny Arcade episode was 1600 Microsoft Points ($20) while the second episode, along with Braid was 1200 ($15). "1200 Microsoft Points," he replied.

Fifteen bucks? Not a shock given the scope of the game. What was surprising, though, was how small the game file figures to be. Van Dyke told us that the engineers had estimated the game would come in at a lean 350 MB, despite being powered by the robust Frostbite engine also used with Battlefield: Bad Company and its sequel. They managed to keep the game so slim by including no videos and by being economic with sound effects.

After getting all that information from Van Dyke, we tried to press our luck and get a more narrow estimate on the release date. Unfortunately, they're still not sure on a date or month - and don't want to give a bad estimate and piss off fans - but Van Dyke could guarantee that it will hit this Summer.

There are no plans of releasing a mod or map editing-tool for BF1943.

At the most, 15 people have been involved in the production of BF1943. In the beginning, there was only Patrick, Gustav and one more guy.

The units in BF1943 do not look like those in Battlefield Heroes, that misconception might have cone from the first cartoonish trailer that was released.

The maximum amount of players for the PC-version is yet to be decided. There is nothing that says it has to be 24.

EA and DICE have announced that Battlefield 1943 will be released simultaneously across the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 15 for just $15 USD. The PC version won't be released until some point in September.
A small slice of World War II is coming to the PlayStation network and Xbox Live Arcade on June 15th in DICE's Frostbyte-driven update to Battlefield 1942. It's the US Marines against the Imperial Japanese Navy as gamers participate in 24-player battles across Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Utilizing the Frostbyte Engine for the game means that all of the wonderful destruction from Battlefield: Bad Company is taking a trip back in time, meaning if you can't kill an opponent who is hiding you can more than likely kill his hiding place.