The catastrophic launch of Battlefield 2042 is by now hardly a secret, having resulted in a huge letdown for the series' fans. In a recent meeting call at EA, a declaration has surfaced, stating that part of the blame for the game's disastrous debut can be ascribed to the launch of Halo Infinite multiplayer.

The Battlefield first-person shooter series has had a long and mostly successful history, with the first installment by developers DICE dating back to 2002. Battlefield 2042 is the latest release of the saga, featuring a futuristic setting. Like its predecessors, it is centered on class-based shooting gameplay, together with vehicular combat and large-scale maps. The game adopted the popular Battle Pass model, offering additional cosmetic items with it.

The latest controversy started when the site Xfire released a report detailing a meeting call at EA, in which chief operating officer Laura Miele offered reasons why Battlefield 2042 flopped. Several issues surfaced, such as the obsolescence of the Frostbite engine, as well as various problems related to the pandemic, but one of the reasons behind the game's failure was stated to be its concurrent release with Halo Infinite: the contrast with the much more polished 343 Industries' title resulting in harsh reception for EA's own.



EA has been swift in denying having linked the failure of its own game to the success of Halo Infinite, emphasizing the self-critical part of the meeting call, and the many other reasons that surfaced in it. The damage control move arrives when a petition to claim refunds of Battlefield 2042 is surpassing 200.000 signatures, highlighting the scale of the community's bitterness at the state of the game.

The failure of EA's latest project is made even worse by the fact that Battlefield 2042 is a multiplayer-only title, resulting in a difficult to recover bleeding player count, with many fans going back to its predecessor Battlefield 5. The disaster is quite unprecedented in the franchise's history, with some even questioning if it isn't time for a change of the series' historical developers.

A common escape road does exist for catastrophic launches: the transitioning to free-to-play model in an attempt to revive the game. It might be, however, an unpopular move with the thousands of gamers who bought the title at full price.

Battlefield 2042 is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.



Posted: Feb 21, 2022 5:56 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/ea-battlefield-2042-blame-halo-infinite/