Battlefield 1943

Battlefield 1943 is a 2009 digital-only multiplayer first-person shooter developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts (EA). Released in July 2009 for the Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) and PlayStation 3 (via the PlayStation Network), it was a bite-sized, highly concentrated homage to the original Battlefield 1942. Utilizing the destructive power of the Frostbite engine, it became an absolute juggernaut of the early digital-download era, breaking sales records and proving that a smaller, budget-priced multiplayer shooter could dominate the console market.

Core Concept

Rather than releasing a massive $60 retail disc, DICE experimented with the booming digital storefronts of the PS3 and Xbox 360. Battlefield 1943 was launched at a highly attractive $15 price point.

Because of the small download size restrictions at the time, the game was heavily streamlined. It completely abandoned the European and North African theaters of the original game to focus exclusively on the Pacific Theater. It launched with only three classic, fan-favorite maps brilliantly remade in the Frostbite engine: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima. Despite the limited content, the gameplay loop was so addictive and polished that it became the fastest-selling download-only game in history at the time.

Gameplay and Features

1943 took the chaotic, 24-player combined-arms warfare of the Bad Company console era and injected it with a streamlined, arcade-like World War II aesthetic:

• Frostbite in the Pacific: For the first time, players could use the Frostbite engine’s destruction on a WW2 battlefield. You could blast away palm trees blocking your sniper sightlines or use a Sherman tank to blow the walls off of Japanese bunkers.
• Streamlined Classes: To keep the gameplay fast and accessible, the traditional five classes were condensed down to just three: Infantry (submachine guns and anti-tank bazookas), Rifleman (semi-automatic rifles and rifle grenades), and Scout (sniper rifles and explosive TNT).
• Arcade Mechanics: It introduced highly controversial, but undeniably fun, quality-of-life mechanics to the series. It was the first Battlefield game to feature auto-regenerating health. Furthermore, weapons had infinite ammunition; instead of picking up ammo crates, players simply had to wait for a short cooldown timer to throw another grenade or fire another bazooka rocket.
• The Air Raid Bunker: A unique feature on every map. Players could enter a specific bunker to temporarily take control of a massive squadron of bomber planes flying high over the map, steering them to carpet-bomb enemy capture points.

The “Coral Sea” Community Challenge

One of the most memorable aspects of Battlefield 1943 was its brilliant marketing campaign. DICE announced a fourth map—Coral Sea—was included in the game files, but it was locked.

To unlock it, the community had to work together to reach a collective 43 million kills. Xbox 360 and PS3 players raced against each other in real-time to hit the milestone first (Xbox players famously won the race in just five days). Once unlocked, Coral Sea introduced Air Superiority mode, a map with no ground combat where all 24 players spawned into Corsair and Zero fighter planes for massive, chaotic dogfights over the ocean.

The Cancelled PC Port and Sunset

Originally, a PC version of the game was announced and highly anticipated. However, DICE continually delayed it before officially cancelling the PC port in early 2011 to focus all of their development resources on completing Battlefield 3.

For console players, 1943 enjoyed a remarkably long and healthy lifespan, largely because it was later included in the EA Play subscription service and was fully backward compatible on modern Xbox consoles. However, all good things must come to an end. Alongside the Bad Company games, EA officially delisted Battlefield 1943 from digital storefronts in April 2023, and permanently shut down the online multiplayer servers on December 8, 2023.

Quick Note

Battlefield 1943 was a masterclass in stripping a game down to its absolute bare essentials.

In short: By removing the bloat of unlockable weapon attachments and massive progression grinds, DICE created a pure, perfect $15 time capsule that delivered some of the most joyous, relaxing, and purely fun multiplayer action of the seventh console generation.