Battlefield 1's flamethrower in action.
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Walking the line between historical accuracy and fun in Battlefield 1

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 11 min

Before Electronic Arts’ DICE studio decided to make Battlefield 1 set during World War I, a couple of game developers had to do research for more than two years to figure out if it was viable. It turns out it was, and the years of research have yielded something that is historically accurate, with an emphasis on the Great War’s lesser-known events.

I’ve played the full game — which debuts today on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC — and it does an excellent job balancing both fun and historical accuracy.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.