''Battlefield 1943'' is a

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by DICE and published by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

through digital distribution. It takes place in the Pacific Theater of Operations of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. A Microsoft Windows version was planned but later cancelled. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics.

Setting

''Battlefield 1943'' casts players as either being Marines with the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

(USMC) or the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

(IJN) with up to 24 players on three maps:

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima. After all players collectively reached 43 million kills, players received access to an additional Coral Sea map.

Gameplay

Like '' Battlefield: Bad Company'', ''1943'' features the Frostbite Engine for its environmental damage. The game only features the series' signature Conquest mode and a new game type called Air Superiority which was unlocked when the online gaming community reached a combined total of 43 million kills in Conquest. Similar to ''

Battlefield Heroes ''Battlefield Heroes'' was a 2009 third-person shooter video game developed by DICE (company), DICE initially and further developed by Easy Studios, published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows. ''Battlefield Heroes'' was a third-person, ...

'', ''1943'' features only three classes: Infantryman, armed with an SMG and

anti-tank rocket Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first devel ...

; Rifleman, armed with a

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt-a ...

and

rifle grenade A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade were thrown by hand. The practice of projecting grenades with rifle-mounted launchers was first widely used dur ...

; and Scout, armed with a scoped rifle, pistol, and dynamite. Each class has an unlimited supply of ammunition. Explosive ordnance, however, does take time to replenish. The game also features a regenerating health system. There are four types of vehicles in the game; fighter, tank, car and landing craft. Each team's main base has two one-man fighter aircraft, with A6M2 Zeros for the Imperial Navy and

F4U Corsair The Vought F4U Corsair is an American fighter aircraft which saw service primarily in World War II and the Korean War. Designed and initially manufactured by Chance Vought, the Corsair was soon in great demand; additional production contracts ...

s for the

. On every map there is also an airfield for either team to capture where a third plane can be used to a team's advantage. Each airplane has four machine guns and can also drop bombs.

Tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...

s can accommodate two players, a driver who can use a tank cannon and a

coaxial machine gun A weapon mount is an assembly or mechanism used to hold a weapon (typically a gun) onto a platform in order for it to function at maximum capacity. Weapon mounts can be broken down into two categories: static mounts and non-static mounts. Stat ...

, and a passenger who can use a mounted machine gun. Cars can accommodate up to three players: a driver, a gunner in the back who operates a machine gun, and a passenger who can fire their own weapon. Landing craft (boats) are used to deliver troops from the carriers to the beaches. Players can also use air raid bunkers to attack with three bomber aircraft to clear an area of a map. To operate these, the player must enter a bunker with a large spinning dish on top. Planes can be shot down by fighter pilots and

anti-aircraft guns Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

, reducing the amount of bombs that the air raid can deliver, or destroying it entirely.

Development, marketing and release

According to the game's development team, accessibility and value were the main reasons the game went digital as opposed to an ordinary retail launch. At the time of the Xbox Live Arcade version's release, issues with server joining and statistic recording functionality were reported. DICE's Gordon Van Dyke and EA responded to the situation, noting that the player volume was much higher than expected and server capacity was exceeded. To remedy the issues, EA and DICE added more servers. Van Dyke also noted that there were problems with players having trouble using their EA accounts. Despite launch problems, DICE reported that after the first day of release players had accumulated 29.45 years worth of game time and over 5 million kills. In 2011, DICE announced that development of the PC version of the game was cancelled, in order to focus on ''

Battlefield 3 ''Battlefield 3'' is a 2011 first-person shooter video game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is a direct sequel to 2005's ''Battlefield 2''. In ''Battlefield 3''s campaign, ...

''. At Sony's conference at E3 2011, Sony announced that a copy of ''Battlefield 1943'' would be included on every disc of ''Battlefield 3'' for the PlayStation 3, but upon release it was not included. EA stated through ''Battlefield''s Twitter account by telling a customer that "In lieu of 'Battlefield 1943''being available on

isc #REDIRECT ISC {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...

for layStation 3 customers, EA has made all 'Battlefield 3''expansions available early to layStation 3customers." Ultimately, EA decided to honor the pre-order announcement. On March 21, 2023, it was announced that the game will be delisted from digital storefronts on April 28, along with '' Battlefield: Bad Company'' and '' Battlefield: Bad Company 2''. Servers for Battlefield 1943 will be shut down on December 8, 2023. This was announced by Electronic Arts (EA) on their website and social media channels in late 2022. After this date, the game will no longer be playable which has promoted strong opinions and debates on the legality of this decision. Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 servers will also be shutting down the same date.

Reception

The game received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. In addition to having the best sales on the first day it was released, ''Battlefield 1943'' went on to become the fastest selling download-only game after the first week. ''Battlefield 1943'' was the top selling Xbox Live Arcade game of 2009, as reported by Xbox Live Director of Programming

Larry Hryb Lawrence Hryb (), also known by his Xbox Live Gamertag "Major Nelson", is a Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live. His blog "Xbox Live's Major Nelson" provides an inside look at operations at Microsoft's Xbox divisio ...

. It sold over 268,000 units in 2010. As of May 2010, the game sold 1.5 million copies.

References

External links

* * {{Battlefield series Video games set in 1943 2009 video games * 07 Cancelled Windows games Electronic Arts games Frostbite (game engine) games Multiplayer online games Multiplayer video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Network games Video games about the United States Marine Corps Video games developed in Sweden Video games set in Japan Video games set in Oceania Video games set in the Solomon Islands Video games set in the United States World War II first-person shooters Xbox 360 games Xbox 360 Live Arcade games Video games using Havok Pacific War video games