How A Headline Gets Written At Kotaku: Battlefield 6 Edition

Consider this the first in a new series of sporadic posts attempting to demystify what goes on at Kotaku, a website about games but also lots of other stuff. We publish many stories here, sometimes well over a dozen throughout the course of a day. Maybe even a hundred by the end of any given week. Likely the first thing you see on any one of those stories is the headline. How do we come up with those?

Well, in the case of a recent news post about new content coming to Battlefield 6, it went something like this. Staff writer Zack Zwiezen, our resident anti-Pax Armata expert, filed an article summarizing new details on what’s coming to the shooter in season 2 and beyond. It had the working headline “Battlefield 6 Devs Announce A Classic, Big Map Is Returning And Share Season Two Details.” Accurate, informative, helpful.

But I spilled my soup during lunch and was feeling a bit cranky. The gaming press, myself included, has a tendency to overuse boring phrases like “announces,” reveals,” and “shows off” to convey that a new thing has happened. I pushed for something that sounded different and offered a couple of alternatives. Here’s the conversation in our work Slack that followed:

Ethan Gach: Battlefield 6 Is Giving Fans A Classic Big Map And More In Season 2
Battlefield 6 Hears You And Reveals A Classic, Big Map For Season 2.
wondering if there’s something more interesting than announces
just say what you want to say about what you think about this

Zack Zwiezen: Battlefield 6 Bringing Back Another Classic Map And Its A Big One

Ethan Gach: Battlefield 6 Season 2 Brings Back A Classic Map But Will It Be Big Enough?

Zack Zwiezen: Well that’s the catch. It won’t be in season 2
they have other maps for season 2
this is likely 3

Ethan Gach: lol why aren’t they revealing season 2 maps?
that seems like a bad sign for big maps in season 2

Zack Zwiezen: They revealed a season 2 map and teased this OTHER one

Ethan Gach: is it big?

Zack Zwiezen: Bigish
lol
hence why I think they are teasing this OTHER map

Ethan Gach: that seems more the story

Zack Zwiezen: It’s something I talk about in the post, yeah
can try to build a hed around it

Ethan Gach: wait so the map is confirmed not for season 2?
or they just won’t say

Zack Zwiezen: It will be in a future season

Carolyn Petit: yeah they want to appease the people pounding the tables and chanting BIG MAP! BIG MAP! by saying “we’ve got a big map coming soon, we promise!”

Ethan Gach: Battlefield 6 Will Bring Back A Classic Big Map But Not For Season 2

Zack Zwiezen: That works
Battlefield 6 Really Wants You All To Know Big Maps Are Coming, Okay? lol

Ethan Gach: As long as it’s still accurate that seems like the story to me

Zack Zwiezen: Yeah your hed is accurate

Ethan Gach: Battlefield 6 To Concerned Nation: Big Maps Are Coming…Eventually

Zack Zwiezen: Battlefield 6 Dev Spreads Out Arms Real Wide On Stage And Receives 20 Minutes Of Standing Applause
anyway, posting with your hed

So there you have it. A perfect headline? No. Better than “Battlefield 6 Devs Announce A Classic, Big Map Is Returning And Share Season Two Details?” Maybe! On the site currently? Yes. And that’s how it got there.