opinion: With Hazard Zone, the last big mode of Battlefield 2042 has now been announced. And it’s way too conservative.
Over a year ago I wrote some complete nonsense (but only once, of course, before the obligatory “And in cyberpunk test too!” comment). It was about the Battle Royale of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. At that time, Warzone was still in the stars, we only knew rumours – and I was sure: This can’t work.
When traditional mainstream shooters dance at too many weddings, the perfect pirouette doesn’t really succeed at any of them. We saw this with Battlefield 5, whose Firestorm Battle Royale was already suffocating as a tiny flame, while the actual multiplayer got far too little new content. Better do one thing right, says the Labour Office full of wisdom.
Well, and then Warzone came along and proved otherwise.
CoD: Warzone does a lot right with its gameplay. The map was immensely exciting at release, the gunfights felt massive, without annoying inventory management the matches played snappy and straightforward, yet tactical. But the most important recipe for success of Warzone was and is first and foremost that I can play it for free. And this is where Battlefield 2042 makes a big mistake, which it really shouldn’t allow itself after the controversial beta.
The new big mode Hazard Zone wants to replace Battle Royale, inherits its strengths, mixes them with the virtues of Tarkov or Hunt and mixes a cocktail that could compete with the currently weakening Warzone – if only it were free of charge!
Hazard Zone must be free
But before I start sounding like a stingy Scrooge McDuck, I have to state two things: a) Uncle Scrooge is probably the coolest duck next to Phantomias and Darkwing Duck and b) I don’t really care about the wallets of us players here for now. Hazard Zone has to be free in order for Battlefield 2042 to rake in the cash EA needs to say: Okay, Battlefield is strong enough as a brand to continue competing with Call of Duty, Fortnite and co. Battlefield has a future.
Because that’s what it’s all about. About new target groups, about the continued existence of a Battlefield that also reaches the countless younger fans of CoD and Fortnite and not just old generations like me who still experienced Battlefield in its heyday almost 10 years ago. When Battlefield 3 went steep, there wasn’t even Netflix yet, folks. We had to wait a week for new episodes – like Mandalorian, only always!
The gaming world is incredibly fast-paced. Many brands that were last big in the 2000s already don’t give a damn about the young adults who had to go through puberty in the 2010s (I feel for you). DICE has been responding to this since Battlefront (2015) by trying to saddle up to modern trends. Only it always fails on the home stretch.
Battlefield stumbles on the home stretch
I’ve been covering DICE games for six years now and after almost every Reveal event I think to myself: damn, does this sound good. Just take the last few games:
Battlefront 2: Finally all the Star Wars eras, a Special Forces campaign from the Empire’s point of view, Criterion developing the starship battles, many more maps than the meagre four maps of the predecessor. -☻ And then we get the lootbox fiasco and far too little new content at release.
Battlefield 5: Battlefield wants to go back to its roots, relies on huge maps in rather unknown locations, promises free DLCs and new content for years -☻ The first really substantial Pacific DLC appears so late that the player base is already unsustainable at that point.
And Battlefield 2042? Finally a Modern Military scenario again, after years of fans clamouring for a new Battlefield 3 and 4 respectively. When it comes to marketing, DICE relies entirely on those Battlefield moments that fans love so much. And then the developers don’t show any gameplay for ages, postpone the release, publish a rather controversial, bug-plagued map that, for all its strengths, simply doesn’t show the game from its best side.
And the supposedly free Hazard Zone mode, with which Warzone could have been seriously defied? But only accessible to people who pay the full purchase price. And that simply doesn’t equate to more time. The Warzone fan isn’t going to switch over to an experimental Battlefield mode for 60 euros when Call of Duty: Vanguard brings new content to his favourite Battle Royale in the same month. Yes, there’s a lot going wrong with Warzone and the new anti-cheat isn’t taking much credit at the moment, but Battlefield 2042 needs to lower the barrier if it wants to reach a target audience used to free-to-play shooters.
Not after Battlefront 2, after Battlefield 5. And definitely not after the beta of Battlefield 2042. Now what has happened is what the developers should really avoid: The old Battlefield foundation is shaking because many people are unsure after the beta whether All Out Warfare will keep all its promises. And the new target groups see this potentially cool Warzone competitor behind a paywall that probably looks like Hadrian’s Wall to Fortnite fans.
I don’t think Battlefield 2042 will be a financial flop. Many, many people won’t even notice all the beta feedback, the hunger for this kind of game is huge (my stomach is rumbling too) – but the launch on 19 November 2021 is the deadline: if All Out Warfare flops then, the player base will probably flatten out rapidly. And if you as a developer get far fewer people on board than would have been possible with a free Hazard Zone, then you only increase the chance that the Firestorm debacle will repeat itself.
I think that would be a real shame. As a fan, I want so much for Battlefield 2042 to be a good game. But DICE should make Hazard Zone a free appetizer – otherwise I see many, many warning signs.
