The future of Battlefield

[phil bottle 9,808]

Looks like a massive shift, with some Battlefield veterans seeing this as the end of the game they loved.

 

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,052]

This is before Warzone Pacific even being released and Vanguard being widely considered as a flop. There's not many other big games out there but when Farming SImulator 2022 has more than twice as many players, you know it's bad! 

 

The only positive is that Vince Zampella is now the head of DICE and 5 employees including the main development director have all left the company within two weeks of launch. He may not be able to turn this game around but it may salvage Battlefield long term. Hopefully Vince will be able to persuade EA to go back to its roots as he is probably the only person at the company who isn't grabbed by the balls and they usually leave him alone to his own creative devices. 

 

The good news is that the game will likely fail before DICE can implement any of their shitty ideas made pre-release.

[phil bottle 9,808]

For me, the difference between COD and Battlefield is no longer blurred, they're both morphing into the same thing. We'll see where that goes.

For more tactical shooters I have other options on PC, so not a problem for me.

 

I'm hoping the price of the PS5 version comes down as I'll probably pick that version up now a few things have been fixed.

[GazzaGarratt 11,065]

Shake ups sometimes are needed and lets hope that this will give the franchise what it needs, although I don't think they were as far off the mark as some of the biggest critics say. This game has a great foundation and just needs continued tweaking, just like most successful live service games. Portal has the potential to be a gamechnager. I do wonder if they could just be a little more vocal after these changes with the consumer. It won't mean all the changes people think they want will go in the game but it helps manage expectations.

 

The bigger issue outside all of DICE's problems are more EA and the continued stubborness not to remove the cross-gen restrictions stopping PS4 play with PS5.

[MrBiron 1,455]

23 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

The bigger issue outside all of DICE's problems are more EA and the continued stubborness not to remove the cross-gen restrictions stopping PS4 play with PS5.

 

I don't understand the decision to be fair. If I want to play with my friends on PS4 in 64 player games, then surely that's my choice to have a "lesser experience"? I've been playing 64 player games for years anyway 🤷‍♂️

[GazzaGarratt 11,065]

1 hour ago, MrBiron said:

 

I don't understand the decision to be fair. If I want to play with my friends on PS4 in 64 player games, then surely that's my choice to have a "lesser experience"? I've been playing 64 player games for years anyway 🤷‍♂️

 

One million percent agree mate. Wreckfest have created it by advising when you start a lobby, if you set it to 16 then PS4 and PS5 players play together but set it at 24 and only PS5 players play together. I'm not sure how its that hard to so. Definitely a business and commercial decision over technical feasibility.

[J4MES OX4D 10,052]

On 12/12/2021 at 10:39 AM, GazzaGarratt said:

Shake ups sometimes are needed and lets hope that this will give the franchise what it needs, although I don't think they were as far off the mark as some of the biggest critics say. This game has a great foundation and just needs continued tweaking, just like most successful live service games.

 

Portal has the potential to be a gamechnager.

A shake-up was not needed in the slightest and isn't what most people wanted because it removes Battlefield's core design and identity and places it into the generic and saturated territory. Portal isn't a 'gamechanger' either - it is LITERALLY the normal/proper Battlefield experience that people expected and ultimately wanted. The fact it is so popular and the best part of the product just shows how flawed 2042 is. Portal is true Battlefield and the 'experimental' 2042 portion should be the tacked-on mode. DICE really got it arse about face and everyone who made these critical design decisions have left the company a week after release and the game is now under new management.  

 

Battlefield's traditional design is timeless and unlike Call of Duty, it doesn't need to evolve in any respect other that in terms of visuals, the engine and content. There was absolutely no need to tamper with the design aspect and the only reason they have done so is for revenue streams and PR - two elements that don't benefit the game or gamer. 

[techno 3,511]

Battlefield 2042 is not battlefield it's a cash cow.

No amount of "tweaking" will fix the glaring omissions from what made battlefield so good and so different. 

If what you see and read about player retention is true then that is all you need to know. Let's be honest there are people out there that enjoying playing with turds😉

[phil bottle 9,808]

Looks like they're dropping this game completely as I hear they're taking about a new Battlefield already.

 

Will be a cold day in hell before I buy another EA product if this is true.

[J4MES OX4D 10,052]

12 minutes ago, phil bottle said:

Looks like they're dropping this game completely as I hear they're taking about a new Battlefield already.

 

Will be a cold day in hell before I buy another EA product if this is true.

It's probably the best and only option. They can spend another 12-18 months trying to beat this dead horse with improvements or turn attention and funnel all resources into a brand new game. The key people behind 2042's core design have already long left the company so it would be a bit unfair on the likes of Zampella and his team to clean up the mess they didn't create to no avail. I just hope people who blindly bought into the ultimate editions get refunded in some way but this is the biggest lesson in existence for people not to pre-order and get overly-hyped for the next game. Even if they did rework the game and make sweeping improvements, it would've been very difficult to capture any significant audience even as a free to play experience because of the damage done. 

 

They need to bring it back to Battefield instead of chasing outdated and saturated trends whilst copying rival games. The brand has had very little comparable competition in two decades so it defied belief they abandoned all the staples of the series and its values. The fact 2042 has made Battlefield 5 look amazing in comparison is truly frightening too! The series will have one last throw of the dice (excuse the pun) and talking of that, I hope DICE plays no part. Vince and his team need to lead the next one.  

[GazzaGarratt 11,065]

Very sad if so. As much as it has its problems, healthy competition out there is always needed in the FPS scene and this game had, and still imo, so much potential to be great.

 

Who knows, in 2024 we'll most likely be playing this game more so every other week after its had some large updates to it over the next few years.

[J4MES OX4D 10,052]

BF2042 drops below 1,000 players on Steam for the first time and the promised early April update has also been delayed 

Battlefield 2042 Steam concurrent players fall below 1000 for first time

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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New figures show that player numbers for DICE's Battlefield 2042 keep on falling, with less than 1000 concurrent users …

 

[J4MES OX4D 10,052]

Further development on Hazard Zone has ceased - as to be one of the worst mode implementations ever! It was leaked back around December that the game mode was deemed internally 'dead' with only a handful of players, less than one hour of retention and the few that played it only trying it once. So much for BF's attempt at Tarkov filler. 

[phil bottle 9,808]

1 hour ago, J4MES OX4D said:

Further development on Hazard Zone has ceased - as to be one of the worst mode implementations ever! It was leaked back around December that the game mode was deemed internally 'dead' with only a handful of players, less than one hour of retention and the few that played it only trying it once. So much for BF's attempt at Tarkov filler. 

No-one can replicate Tarkov, I pity the fools who would try. Although there's a good DayZ mod of it tbf 😁

 

I'd love it if we got a few people on BF2042, I do jump on occasionally...

[GazzaGarratt 11,065]

On 5/24/2022 at 8:23 PM, phil bottle said:

I'd love it if we got a few people on BF2042, I do jump on occasionally...

 

Just finding time is the issue with that. And lining up a squad that want to! 😅 (let's face it, still need to try Tarkov don't I 😄)

 

 

All I can think of is that they're working through the F2P issues that may come across from people who bought the full game. They're obviously hearing where CoD is going and not down the yearly release anymore so they have to have a solid business model to work against that, otherwise players won't jump ship from Warzone and the new MW2 coming out later in the year.

[Luseth 1,971]

As someone who has been a big fan of the series for years there has been a noticeable change in direction, the last game BFV was a slight shift towards that end goal and I think fans started to move away at that point knowing what was to come. BF2042 is a complete and utter disaster that I think they may struggle to recover from, I appreciate they are trying to find the right model going forwards however there were glaring omissions from the original launch that took a lot of what battlefield was away, couple that with badly designed maps that were possibly way too big and there's no one who has stuck around to play it.

 

I jumped on briefly the other night (PS) and the gun play is actually quite good I feel but everything else just let's it down. It's such a far cry from BF1 (which was incredibly atmospheric) and even BFV has had it's really good moments.