According to journalist Tom Henderson, EA was internally self-critical about Battlefield 2042, but also names an unexpected reason for the problems.
According to a press report, EA has identified four major reasons for the problems of Battlefield 2042. This is how the well-known insider and journalist Tom Henderson reports it. According to this, an internal EA meeting is said to have taken place, the contents of which the industry insider wants to know about.
Thanks to his anonymous contacts, Tom Henderson has become known for many precise predictions about secret projects. Nevertheless, please note that his information does not come from EA’s official channels and therefore cannot be confirmed.
Report paints a picture of self-criticism
Tom Henderson explains in his (report) that four main causes of Battlefield 2042’s buggy release were reportedly discussed in an internal meeting. The conversation about the shooter reportedly lasted 20 minutes and was led by EA’s COO Laura Miele. Other important people such as Respawn boss Vince Zampella and DICE vice president Rebecka Coutaz also had their say.
According to Miele, it was important to acknowledge their own mistakes around the game. According to Henderson’s report, Miele had statued:
‘This is certainly the case with the release of Battlefield, which did not meet the expectations of our players and also fell well short of our own expectations.’
Battlefield 2042 was released with a historically high bug count for a DICE game, he said. So the buggy release state had played a big part in the failure, but unexpected reasons had also come to the fore.
This is what EA is said to think about Battlefield 2042
The main bugs and problems EA is said to have mentioned during the conversation:
- The engine rework: Because the team at DICE had to rework an older version of the Frostbite engine for BF2042, internal schedules had fallen behind. This is said to have taken on a large scale, the game was basically translated to a new engine.
- The Pandemic: The Corona Pandemic began in the middle of development, which was already in a mess due to the engine problems. Working from the home office had made the situation even more difficult due to new variables
- Wrong assessment: At the same time, Miele had also emphasised that after the beta there had been a lot of positive feedback from players as well as criticism. This, coupled with some pre-release testing in the high 70s and low 80s, contributed to EA’s perception of the game being too positive
- Surprising comparison with Halo Infinite: Laura Miele is said to have cited the direct comparison with Microsoft’s shooter Halo: Infinite, which offered a much smoother gaming experience, as another contributing factor to Battlefield 2042’s failure. The multiplayer mode appeared surprisingly early and free to play – a few days before the Battlefield release in November 2021.
In the official standpoint, EA wants to continue working on Battlefield 2042 despite the problems. For this purpose, Respawn boss Vince Zampella, for example, was recently put at the helm.
