Reports are coming in that EA management is blaming several factors for the poor launch of Battlefield 2042, including the release of Halo Infinite.
According to Xfire’s Tom Henderson, company management discussed the game in a quarterly ‘Town Hall’ meeting earlier this week. The report claims executives spent twenty minutes discussing the shooter, released back in November. Apparently, Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele said on the call the launch “failed to meet the expectations of our players, and also clearly missed our own expectations”.
As to why, the report claims Miele first cited extensive upgrades to the series’ Frostbite engine. “The Frostbite version they were on was so old they had to go back & update. So it was basically putting the game on a new engine”. Staff working from home due to the pandemic was also mentioned as a reason. “We ended up with more new variables in development than we have ever experienced before.”
The report also claims bugs were a common issue during development. Though DICE worked hard to squish them, it seems the surprise release of Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer drew unfavourable comparisons. Xfire’s report claims Miele said fans saw Halo Infinite as “a very polished title whereas Battlefield 2042 contained bugs and wasn’t as polished.”
In detailing the company’s plans to fix Battlefield 2042, Miele said player feedback will be key. “Clearly, we didn’t go wide enough with different player segments and we certainly didn’t go deep enough with the game, so we did not bring players along with us, which is a big miss for the development cycle and process of this game.”
DICE announced Season One of Battlefield 2042 wouldn’t arrive until the Summer earlier this month to fix the core game. We’ll have to wait and see if it helps turn things around.
