SOE has announced that later this year, they will be adding new "smaller scale" maps to PlanetSide 2.
These "Battle Islands," as they are being called, have apparently been something the PlanetSide 2 community has been asking for, and it's built for smaller scale skirmishes like 48 vs 48 instead of the game's traditional large scale warfare.
"Outfit versus outfit is kind of what the Battle Islands are about," SOE said, adding that Battle Islands will add diversity and new methods of gameplay to PlanetSide 2.
SOE, admittedly, isn't entirely sure of how they plan on handling Battle Islands, though it was explained to us that right now the concept is to allow only two factions at a time to battle it out instead of the usual three-way. How those factions will be determined is still yet to be decided, but right now the idea is to set certain criteria to open up the Battle Island, like controlling specific territories. For example, access to a Battle Island might require a specific territory to be controlled. If your faction controls that territory, then you will be one of the two factions allowed to battle for that particular island. Of course, the other participating faction would be determined based on another particular territory.
Right now, there's no exact timeframe for when Battle Islands will arrive in PlanetSide 2, though SOE did say some time "toward the end of the year." On a related note, there's still no date for when PS4 owners can expect the PlanetSide 2 beta, other than some time in 2014.