Battlefield 2042 has been the subject of much criticism since its release, and some of it has been harsh. Now, the developers are showing optimism and want to convince players of the shooter.
A little over a year ago, on November 19, 2021, Battlefield 2042 launched as the latest installment. However, the launch went poorly, with numerous bugs and unpopular decisions leading to a lot of criticism.
The game has only partially recovered from that so far. Recently, at least the player count on Steam has been rising, and the ratings are also becoming somewhat more positive. On Steam, the feedback for “all reviews” (121,133) is still mostly negative, with 32% negative reviews. But at least the “recent reviews” from the last 30 days (4,038) are “Mixed,” with 59% positive reviews.
Furthermore, Season 3 with new content has started, the more popular class system is returning, the game will be part of Game Pass and EA Play, and an initial outlook for Seasons 4 and 5, content for the upcoming year, has been provided. The game is to be continuously improved and supplied with content.
The situation seems to have made the team behind Battlefield 2042 optimistic a year after the launch.
“We want this game to get better”
This is what developers say: In interviews with “PC Gamer“, several members of the team behind the game have spoken out. They now apparently see Battlefield 2042 in a significantly better state than it was at launch and immediately thereafter.
We have brought the game and quality to a point where the team can attract more players: We were not there in the beginning. We didn’t think it was fair to bring new players into a game whose experience does not match what it should be.
explained Senior Producer Ryan McArthur to PC Gamer
McArthur describes the current state as a “good point” to build on: “From the perspective of live service, we want to do even more. We want this game to get better.”
Among other things, Dice announced in the roadmap update that Season 4 will be released in early 2023, featuring a new specialist, a map, a new battle pass, and presumably also new weapons. Season 5 will then come with another map that is expected to represent a location from Battlefield 4.
“We have a very good feeling about the direction the game is taking,” said Associate Producer Alexia Christofi to PC Gamer optimistically.
In retrospect, they show self-criticism: According to McArthur, a focus during development was on being particularly “innovative.” But in the end, that led to the “core essence” of a Battlefield game being missing.
“We aimed for the moon but missed,” says Christofi regarding the launch of the game. They delayed Season 1, which Christofi describes as “difficult”: “But the team recognized that we were doing it for the right reasons and that we needed to focus on the question: ‘How can we ensure that community feedback is more integrated into our work?’
McArthur explains that, in a way, “translation work” plays a role: “A large part of the feedback we received was negatively aggressive, but that doesn’t make it wrong. The key for us was to sift through it and say: ‘If you take the emotions out, what did they say? What are they missing?” The feedback has now also become more constructive and they are trying to implement it.
Christofi further explains: “We are very interested in receiving this feedback and recognize that our players love Battlefield, that they have always loved Battlefield, and that we can learn a lot from them.”
How this will ultimately shape up is something the coming months will show. But Battlefield 2042 seems to want to be the game that players wanted from the beginning.
What do you currently think of Battlefield 2042? Are you still giving the game a chance, or are you done with the shooter? Tell us in the comments!
Are you looking for an alternative? Meanwhile, the second part of Warzone has started in the shooter competition from Call of Duty. Also, the DMZ mode has been released – and has created excitement among MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller.
