Battlefield 6 this week: how to play it free on PS5, Steam or Game Pass - and why the $30 shortcut can wait

Seventy euros. That's what Battlefield 6 still costs on Steam at full price a year after launch, and it's exactly the number you don't need to pay this week. Season 5 landed on October 13, and EA has opened three doors at once - plus one paid shortcut that I'd walk straight past.

The free windows, platform by platform

PS5: a trial of the full game runs from October 14 at 17:00 until October 19 at 22:00 (Central European time). That's five evenings, which is enough to know whether this is your shooter.

Steam: one day shorter - from October 15 at 19:00 until October 19 at 19:00. On PC, remember the game won't start without TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot enabled, so check that before the trial clock starts, not during it.

Xbox: no trial this time, but there's a better reason for that - Battlefield 6 joined Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on October 13. If you already pay for either, you have the game, full stop.

The catch on the trial: it's once per EA account. Don't burn it on a Sunday afternoon when you've got two hours. And anything you buy in the in-game shop during the trial stays with you if you later buy the game - which is fine, but also exactly why the shop is right there in your face.

This is also worth noting: unlike earlier free phases, which only gave you the free REDSEC battle royale with a trimmed set of maps and modes, EA describes this as a trial of the full game. So you're actually testing the thing you'd be paying for.

The $30 question

Alongside Season 5, EA added the Ultimate Shortcut Kit: about $30 to instantly unlock every gun for all four classes at 100% Mastery. Battlefield has sold shortcut kits before, so this isn't a shock, but the price is. For context, the base game has already been half price in sales, and that's roughly the same money.

My take: if you're coming in through a free trial or Game Pass, you don't know yet whether you'll still be playing in December. Paying a third of a full game's price to skip the part of a shooter that actually teaches you its guns makes very little sense on day one. Where it could make sense is for a returning player with a few hundred hours who simply hates the grind on new weapons - and Season 5 adds four of them (Mk 24, MP RSPR, Z84M and ELR-40). Even then, I'd wait for a sale.

So, which route?

On Xbox or PC with Game Pass: just play, it's included. On PS5: use the five-day window, and if it clicks, wait for the next discount rather than paying full price straight after the trial. On Steam without Game Pass: the trial is your free test, and the price goes back to €69.99 once it ends.

One note from players who've already jumped in: Quick Match can put you in rounds padded with bots. Picking servers more deliberately reportedly helps - worth knowing before you judge the game on one empty lobby.

Image: James Pressley / CC BY-SA 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battlefield_6.JPG