At an investor conference, publisher EA admitted that they were disappointed with Battlefield 2042. But they don’t want to give up on the shooter.
This is probably the first time that EA has commented critically on the release of Battlefield 2042. While they looked back on a basically very successful third quarter of 2021 at yesterday’s investor conference, they also dedicated a few words to the shooter suffering from player decline. EA confirmed its intention to further develop the shooter.
Previously, it was also announced that the first season for Battlefield 2042 would be delayed until early summer:
Battlefield 2042: The Free2Play emergency solution will not be enough
What EA says about Battlefield 2042
The CEO Andrew Wilson commented on the success, respectively failure of the shooter. We summarise and classify his statements.
At the beginning we would like to point out that the following statements were of course made to justify the development so far and the further procedure to investors. That is why many of EA’s statements here remain vague and cautious.
The launch of Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations, Wilson states. It was believed that the game was ready for release and that it was stable at the time of release. However, Wilson argues, unexpected performance issues soon became apparent as more players were added.
In addition, not all players in the community would have been happy with some design decisions. Again, Wilson is very cautious and unspecific about the dissatisfaction with the shooter.
Wilson’s statement is probably an indication of the dissatisfaction in the community about the design of the maps and the general atmosphere of the game. On the one hand, many players are of the opinion that the very large maps sometimes seem empty and unfinished, and on the other hand, foot soldiers in particular suffer from the considerable distances they have to cover on foot.
On the other hand, the specialists and their casual and funny sayings were particularly disliked by the players: many felt that the latter were inappropriate for the gloomy background story of the shooter.
Wilson sees the cause of the problems in the great ambitions of the game and the difficulties that arose from working in the home office. In particular, he mentions the 128-player battles, new game modes and gameplay.
In fact, many game developers had to deal with difficulties due to the corona pandemic. This is also why some games had to be postponed last year. Here you can find all the postponements:
Much substantial criticism
Battlefield 2042 met with criticism precisely because, outside of Portal, it offers fewer game modes than its predecessors and, especially compared to the last Modern Military scenario in Battlefield 4, has significantly less content, in terms of maps or weapons, for example.
In addition, the development of Battlefield was probably riddled with problems, if the information from Tom Henderson is to be believed. The insider regularly leaks industry information.
Most recently, EA_Chef Wilson emphasised that EA is determined to realise the game’s full potential. To what extent this announcement will come true, of course, only time will tell.
But in 2022, four seasons will be launched and a lot of content will be delivered. This is also bitterly necessary, because a conversion to Free2Play alone would not be enough to save BF 2042.
For Battlefield fans, we can only hope that EA has a really good plan for the shooter up its sleeve. Among our readers, a majority is already of the opinion that Electronic Arts should scrap Battlefield 2042 and develop a new game.
