Battlefield 2042 has already been postponed once. After the beta, several fans are now calling for another delay. But what exactly is the problem? And how likely is it that EA will listen to the loud voices?
Meanwhile, several pieces of information about Battlefield 2042 are known. The short beta was playable, all modes were introduced, and most features were fully explained. But one thing is still up in the air: the release.
This is actually set for November 19, 2021, after Battlefield 2042 has already been postponed once. The delay caused mixed feelings at that time.
Many fans at least saw that a delay is better than a rushed release with many issues. Others were annoyed – also by the general release policy, as MeinMMO author Tarek Zehrer noted:
The topic is still being hotly debated within the community. Some find it perfectly acceptable; they had fun in the beta and hope that existing problems will be fixed. Others, however, see the whole issue critically.
For them, Battlefield 2042 is far from finished. They criticize the new features and do not see, that bugs from the beta have been fixed.
The playable version of the beta had a number of technical issues, ranging from graphical glitches to faulty game physics to errors that completely prevented gameplay. Not a good state for a finished game.
So several fans are now calling for a delay. But how sensible is that?
“Don’t become the next Cyberpunk”
If Battlefield 2042 appears in the state of the beta or a similar one, the franchise will suffer sustainable damage. Much seems incomplete or poorly thought out, such as the selection of specialists, which goes against the spirit of older Battlefield titles.
Since the game is currently being presented as finished, the disappointment would be even greater. Because the current state is not apparent; everyone has to trust that what EA and DICE say is true.
A similar problem afflicted the sci-fi RPG Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk had experienced enormous hype at its time, only to disappoint many players upon release. Allegedly, the developers already knew about the problems beforehand.
Here, too, the game was advertised in a better state than it ultimately was. This had various consequences, including:
- Poor ratings due to bad performance at launch on some platforms
- Loss of reputation for CDProjekt Red in the community, which had been built up through The Witcher 3
- Stock market losses
- Two hefty class-action lawsuits
The community has similar concerns. In another, highly positively rated opinion thread on reddit, it states: “DICE, please delay and rework the game. Don’t become the next Cyberpunk.” There are over 750 comments on this thread alone – it clearly occupies the fans.
Whether the consequences for Battlefield 2042 are actually as severe as for Cyberpunk remains to be seen. At least, one can clearly see how it could go in the worst case.
This is the difficulty: The build that players were able to play during the beta is already older. Several months old, in fact, as it was stated, when we were allowed to test Battlefield 2042 in advance.
The impression that the beta left is therefore not current. Many of the issues may have already been resolved – or may have worsened. According to an insider report, the build may not even be as old as claimed, which raises even more uncertainty among players.
The big problem is that the insight into the development is lacking, which could quickly clarify such uncertainties.
Bugs could be fixed within a few days or even hours if they are trivial. However, they can also take several weeks of work if they cause subsequent errors. This is exactly where the transparency is missing that makes players so uncertain.
What exactly does Battlefield 2042 want to be?
Despite now more information, communication with the community and also the press remains a bigger problem for Battlefield 2042. The absence of any announcements about content or the beta has early on caused uncertainty.
After the announcement of the game, there was a long time without information. No tweets with content, no press releases, not even many leaks on a larger scale. As if the game was still in the early stages of development.
Players were not even clear about what they should actually do with Battlefield 2042. Some old features were missing, and new content seems to be randomly strewn in. This even led to the theory: Battlefield 2042 was supposed to be a battle royale.
With over 2,400 upvotes, this is one of the larger threads, and many fans agree. Battlefield 2042 seems to be doing some things right – it’s just lacking polish at this point. The framework promises a solid game, according to GameStar:
It should also be considered that negative voices on platforms like reddit are generally louder than the positive ones. It is quite possible that here a minority is shouting loudly, and a completely different picture is drawn in secret surveys.
This is why it’s still difficult: Currently, there is no way to truly assess how far along Battlefield 2042 is. There is a lack of insight into the current technical state of the game. All we get to see are polished trailers.
Although communication has improved, solid content is still lacking for players to make decisions. In social media, we frequently hear since the beta that the release will now be awaited first.
However, that could become a problem. Because virtually at the same time, Call of Duty: Vanguard is released, which is the biggest competitor to Battlefield 2042. The two games will strongly compete for player time, and the better game will prevail. Even the new Halo Infinite, coming shortly after, could pose a threat with its Free-to-Play approach.
Only the absolute fans will decide beforehand. And these are apparently not in favor of changes like the specialists, at least if we are to believe the echo chamber of reddit.
With a delay, Battlefield wouldn’t face such a problem. While Vanguard might establish itself by then, many players who want to reorient later would then have time for a new shooter after the CoD hype.
A delay would be painful, but better
Considering all the arguments, it would be better for Battlefield 2042 to postpone the release once again. Only a small portion of players will actually be upset about waiting longer. But fans will buy the game anyway, and casual players won’t mind starting later.
Worse would be an unfinished game that has to compete with Call of Duty. Then Battlefield and its players would have to face ridicule or wait a long time for errors to be fixed through subsequent patches.
Over time, it may happen that interest dies out or completely disappears if Battlefield 2042 achieves a demonstrable state that it should have had at release.
Additionally, some players might generally turn away from the franchise when they see an unfinished game coming onto the market while the competition is doing better. This would result in a lasting loss of potential interest.
As it stands, Battlefield 2042 is still set to be released on November 19 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. How the shooter will actually perform then remains to be seen. However, it wouldn’t be that hard for Battlefield to reclaim the shooter throne, at least according to MeinMMO author Tarek Zehrer:
Battlefield 2042 just needs to do one thing better than Call of Duty to become really good
There is no official statement that supports this theory or explains why the original path was deviated from. However, an insider report seems to believe that there have been significant problems with the development in general, which would also explain the inadequate communication:
The problem persists to this day. The expectations for Battlefield 2042 are high, but there is a lack of concrete information from players. Things that are verifiable, like the promised bug fixes from the beta.
Release in November – Yes or no?
This is what it would be about: A major point of criticism from the beta was the technical state of the game. Many players couldn’t even get into the game or found numerous bugs, such as with vehicles or buildings.
A good portion of these bugs should have already been fixed, at least that’s what was said. If that’s true, Battlefield 2042 would at least be technically in a much better state than it has appeared so far.
Despite the bugs and new systems like the specialists, which replace the classes, a large part of the players had fun. In a thread on reddit, it states: “I’m keeping my preorder. Had fun in the beta.”
With over 2,400 upvotes, this is one of the larger threads, and many fans agree. Battlefield 2042 seems to be doing some things right – it’s just lacking polish at this point. The framework promises a solid game, according to GameStar:
It should also be considered that negative voices on platforms like reddit are generally louder than the positive ones. It is quite possible that here a minority is shouting loudly, and a completely different picture is drawn in secret surveys.
This is why it’s still difficult: Currently, there is no way to truly assess how far along Battlefield 2042 is. There is a lack of insight into the current technical state of the game. All we get to see are polished trailers.
Although communication has improved, solid content is still lacking for players to make decisions. In social media, we frequently hear since the beta that the release will now be awaited first.
However, that could become a problem. Because virtually at the same time, Call of Duty: Vanguard is released, which is the biggest competitor to Battlefield 2042. The two games will strongly compete for player time, and the better game will prevail. Even the new Halo Infinite, coming shortly after, could pose a threat with its Free-to-Play approach.
Only the absolute fans will decide beforehand. And these are apparently not in favor of changes like the specialists, at least if we are to believe the echo chamber of reddit.
With a delay, Battlefield wouldn’t face such a problem. While Vanguard might establish itself by then, many players who want to reorient later would then have time for a new shooter after the CoD hype.
A delay would be painful, but better
Considering all the arguments, it would be better for Battlefield 2042 to postpone the release once again. Only a small portion of players will actually be upset about waiting longer. But fans will buy the game anyway, and casual players won’t mind starting later.
Worse would be an unfinished game that has to compete with Call of Duty. Then Battlefield and its players would have to face ridicule or wait a long time for errors to be fixed through subsequent patches.
Over time, it may happen that interest dies out or completely disappears if Battlefield 2042 achieves a demonstrable state that it should have had at release.
Additionally, some players might generally turn away from the franchise when they see an unfinished game coming onto the market while the competition is doing better. This would result in a lasting loss of potential interest.
As it stands, Battlefield 2042 is still set to be released on November 19 for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. How the shooter will actually perform then remains to be seen. However, it wouldn’t be that hard for Battlefield to reclaim the shooter throne, at least according to MeinMMO author Tarek Zehrer:
Battlefield 2042 just needs to do one thing better than Call of Duty to become really good
