KEY POINTS

  • EA is taking steps to fix most of "Battlefield 2042's" worst problems
  • A rework to the Specialist system is on the horizon
  • The "Battlefield" team is getting restructured for smoother development in the future

The executives at EA recently held a Town Hall meeting where they went over what exactly went wrong with “Battlefield 2042,” which resulted in the overwhelming backlash it received from the gaming community. Plenty of insight was provided during the meeting, but despite this, the future of the franchise remains murky at best.

“Battlefield” is no stranger to botched launches, but “2042” has set the record for the worst launch of any game in the series so far. During the meeting, EA chief studios officer Laura Miele said the game failed to meet the expectations of both the players and the company. She then outlined a few key factors that led to the horrible launch of the game, according to an Xfire report.

Miele blamed the game’s horrendously-buggy state on the old engine and the work-from-home setup that DICE’s developers were forced to have amid the pandemic. She also pointed out that certain game design elements like the Specialist system, the removal of “legacy” features like all chat, VOIP, a proper scoreboard and the shallow map design all failed to meet player expectations.

Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone tasks players with retrieving data from satellites that crashed in hostile territory
Battlefield 2042's Hazard Zone tasks players with retrieving data from satellites that crashed in hostile territory Electronic Arts

It has since been confirmed that some features like voice chat and improved scoreboards will be added in later patches, and bug fixes will continue to be deployed over the coming months. But this begs the question of whether or not EA can still save the game following the overwhelmingly negative response from the fans. The Specialist system will be eventually reworked, but EA hasn’t gone into detail about this yet.

Xfire reported that all “Battlefield” teams will be restructured to ensure the development process flows more smoothly. The developers will also be considering player feedback once they begin to take a fresh new look at “Battlefield 2042” later this month.

Based on the details surrounding the Town Hall meeting, EA isn’t going to give up on the “Battlefield” franchise just yet. The executives are trying to rectify the mistakes made in the development, but, overall, it may be too early to say if they can pull this off or not, considering how deeply-rooted “2042’s” issues are within the gameplay itself.

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