Even the most ardent Battlefield fans out there have to admit that Battlefield 2042’s launch and subsequent performance have been truly woeful. A petition demanding refunds gradually reached over 120,000 signatures and even EA has admitted that the game didn’t meet expectations, blaming working from home and Halo Infinite as the cause of Battlefield 2042’s incredibly negative reception. According to a new report, Dice is well aware of the game’s failings and learned some “valuable lessons” from the experience.
Tom Henderson - a reliable industry insider well-connected to the Battlefield series - has claimed in an article on Xfire that Battlefield 2042 is referred to as “a miss” internally and that Dice will be “reverting a lot of the changes” made to the series going forward. While Henderson doesn’t claim this is concrete, he speculates that the next Battlefield game could ditch the widely criticized 128 player battles and specialists. This is unconfirmed, but it sounds like the next game in the series could be going back to the basics.
Henderson also claims that the performance of Battlefield 2042 may have curtailed some of Dice’s more ambitious plans for the series. According to one former developer, the next installment of the Battlefield series was going to end up being a “hero shooter”, similar to titles like Overwatch. Dice has reportedly now scrapped this plan due to player feedback on specialists.
As for the future of Battlefield 2042, Henderson claims that there’s a core team of devs working on new content for the game while the rest of Dice gets to work on the next Battlefield game. Dice will reportedly be releasing at least four new specialists alongside four battle passes, and that new maps, weapons, vehicles, and modes are coming as well. Good news for those that actually enjoy Battlefield 2042, but it’s worth pointing out that none of this has been confirmed by either EA or Dice.
Battlefield 2042 is currently available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series.