Battlefield 2042 "strayed a little too far" from what makes a Battlefield game, says franchise boss
It moved away from what makes the series fun.
EA's Vince Zampella has said that when it comes to Battlefield 2042, DICE "strayed a little too far" from what makes Battlefield a Battlefield game.
Speaking in an interview with Barrons, Zampella said the team behind the game may have also been a bit too ambitious.
“I think they just strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is,” he said (via VGC). “They tried to do a couple of things that were maybe ambitious: grow the player count, etc. I don’t think they spent enough time iterating on what makes that fun.
"It’s not inherently a bad idea. The way they were set up and the way they executed just didn’t allow them to find the best thing possible.”
At the end of 2021, the Respawn Entertainment co-founder was put in charge of the Battlefield franchise going forward after Battlefield 2042 failed to go over well with crtics and players.
EA feels two of the reasons for the game's cool reception, according to a report, were the release of Halo Infinite and the Covid pandemic. EA reportedly stated in a town hall-style meeting that Infinite's multiplayer releasing days before Battlefield 2042 hurt the game. Plus, the work-from-home environment due to Covid-19 didn't help matters.
The two variables were only partially blamed, as it was admitted there were misses at launch.
Battlefield 2042 was released in November 2021 with a myriad of issues, causing DICE to push back the start of Season One. Not long after the game was released, players started leaving in droves, especially on PC. Some were so fed up with the game, a petition was created asking EA to provide refunds.
In our review, Sherif said that while he was hopeful that 2042 will be a more interesting Battlefield game at some point, having been through varying degrees of rough launches with the series, he said he may not have the "stamina to perform the dance of chastising DICE for technical problems and missing features, only to turn around and celebrate when the game is inevitably ‘good now, actually’ a year into it."