EA Director of Comms for Shooters Comments on Battlefield 2042 Silence; Says Expectations "Brutal"

EA Director of Comms for Shooters comments on the on-going Battlefield 2042 silence in communications, and says fan expectations are "brutal."

[-Foxtrot]

Fans just want a game that works at this point and is like Battlefield

[PhillyDillyDee]

We just want a battlefield game. Not this trend-chasing nonsense.

[excaliburps]

I agree. We just want BF3/BF4 with better graphics, more weapons, better destruction, new maps, new gadgets and that was it. Not this Specialist nonsense.

[LordoftheCritics]

Adding a scorecard is ''brutal''

[JEECE]

V was a battlefield game (putting aside the stupid firestorm nonsense) and people played Siege and MW instead (games with specialist type systems). When BF fans abandoned a class-based BF for those games, why shouldn't Dice conclude that players like those systems better?

I understand that BF2042 has finally gotten people to acknowledge that V is good and actually play it, but it's a bit late for that now.

(I know you have played V btw, I'm speaking about the base generally)

[frostypants]

@JEECE the problem was BFV did almost everything worse than BF1, BF4 and BF3. It was a step back.

[JEECE]

Although Dice reasonably concluded that fans wanted a specialist/operator-based game, given that so many people skipped BFV (a standard class-based BF game, albeit not the best of the series) and played COD:MW and Siege instead, both operator/specialist-based games.

The problem is that people didn't skip BFV because of anything about the game, they really are just babies who got sad because of a trailer and bailed on their favorite franchise because of it. Dice actually overestimated the fans in assuming they were graviting toward gameplay they found to be superior.

And now people are unironically grouping BFV and BF2042 together as one downhill slump for the franchise when it was really them skipping V that led to the changes in 2042 they hate so much.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Its a complicated state of affairs to say the least lol. BFV had good bones. The pre-release marketing is absolutely what killed it. I actually loved it aside from the ridiculous elite skins…

[LordoftheCritics]

''Although Dice reasonably concluded that fans wanted a specialist/operator-based game, given that so many people skipped BFV (a standard class-based BF game, albeit not the best of the series) and played COD:MW and Siege instead, both operator/specialist-based games.''

JUST LOL AT YOUR THEORY

People wanted a modern Battlefield but BF4 launch was so bad and then ppl moved on to Overwatch and whatever else eventually by the time they fixed BF4.

World war battlefield was not expected and it just wasnt received well for many reasons, not just other games. The most successfull BF games were of a modern setting.

2042 looked like we were finally getting that modern battlefield game and they blew it.

The real theory?

EA wanted APEX repeat and Fortnite/COD money, they chase not lead.

DICE used to lead, Bioware used to lead. Now they just chase trends, chasing means always 2nd place or lower. Microsoft chased all of last gen and they ate shit as well. Be original and innovate and lead. Thats whats missing.

BF2042 could be labelled as ''Modern Warrior 3'' or something and it would have been seen with that lens.
It would still suck but ppl wouldnt hate it for not being battlefield. 2042 is barebones battlefield, with soooo much lacking and no campaign on top of it.

[CorndogBurglar]

But BFV wasn't good. It might have been good if it came out before so many other BF games that were better. But you can't look at BFV and say it's on par with BF2, 3, 4, or even 2142, and it certainly isn't anywhere near as good as Bad Company 2.

Yes, BFV is better than 2042. But so is pretty much every other BF game lol. BFV was a huge step back from what we had been getting up until BF1 came out. BF1 was the beginning of the end for the franchise.

[lipton101]

Battlefield V was a Politically Correct box checking exercise in game making. It could’ve been a GREAT WW2 game but instead settled for mediocrity

[CorndogBurglar]

Exactly! Fan expectations are not brutal. Most of us just want a Battlefield game that is like the games the came before, but with small innovations. The formula already worked.

Every iteration of Battlefield all the way up until Battlefield 4 is a good to great game. Bad Company 2 is on a whole other level. If devs were able to make those games all the time ago, there's no excuse why they can't do that now, but with updated graphics and sound, as well as some new game modes.

Do that Dice/EA.

[PhillyDillyDee]

MFer YOU set the expectations high when you abandoned BFV ahead of schedule and promised the next one would be better! Y’all did this to yourselves.

I do love how quickly 2042 was abandoned by players. Its hilarious to me that everyone pretty much went back to BFV.

[Nitrowolf2]

Yeah, people are upset. I get the devs are on break, but don’t act all surprise and be snarky about them complaining when you come back. It’s been almost two months and we have no clue what’s going on

[kikicub]

Very funny considering most people hated BFV. I thought most people would fall back to BF4, I know I haven't stopped playing it.

[PhillyDillyDee]

By the time they cut development, it was just gaining traction. Honestly its mechanics are the best they have ever been IMO.

[Soulrakk]

Still the best in the series. Not hard to figure out what people want.

[Omegasyde]

There still active people playing it? I might just have to reinstall it.

[CorndogBurglar]

Are there still a good amount of people playing BF4? I've been wanting to play Battlefield again, and that is truly the last good BF game. But I also don't want to log into a ghost town.

[Nineball2112]

I hated BFV. I stopped playing it a month after release. I haven't left BF1. I'd love to have new content for BF1. That was the pinnacle of how a Battlefield game should play with the mechanics, classes, etc.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Yeah i must admit that BF1 is my fav. Take the movement from BFV and put it in there and it would be perfect.

[Omegasyde]

Although I preferred the maps over bf4, bF1 was awesome and treated class system perfectly. My only gripe was the gargantuan war machines. Awesome as hell when you are piloting/shooting out of a blimp, but when on defending team, it was chaos.

[pr33k33]

apparently expecting a working game at launch is "brutal"

[sourOG]

Or maybe you just suck at your job. People that pay full retail 70 dollars for a multiplayer only game have expectations. That’s not brutal, that’s common sense.

[Noskypeno]

When they decided to take campaign out , I was expecting the mp to be top tier. If they launched with a Hardline like campaign, the backlash would still be severe, complaints would be had that it's difficult to focus on sp and mp at the same time (even tho dozens of great games have both that are exceptional) but at least we get something that doesn't feel like we were scammed.

[gamesftw250]

all my hopes dropped when they pulled the campaign honestly.

[sourOG]

You could be right, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t play BF games but i understand that throwing your fans under a bus because you failed to deliver isn’t good PR.

[lipton101]

I had high hopes for Hazard Zone. I love Escape from Tarkov and have about 600 hours in it but the game needs a competitor. I thought hazard zone would be that competition. I was wrong. And the rest of the game popped the bed too

[annoyedgamer]

I have always admired the creative excuses from EA execs.

[Ninver]

Exquisite A$$holes

[MetroidFREAK21]

Brutal... how about make something that fans want in the first place?

[Hawk198666]

How about stop realising games in progress? Seriously what is going on with today's gaming, past few years has been the worst of gaming imo, should be a law to stop devs/publishers release unfinished games. And Sony/Microsoft etc need to step up and do something about it.

[Inverno]

I feel as if it would be very hard to ruin something (anything not just a piece of media) unless you're actively trying to push onto it what doesn't belong, or you don't try to put in an effort to understand it. BF isn't some new game that started with BFV, it's been around since 2002.

The expectation for the longest time now has been a BF as good and more improved than Bad Company 2. A game which DICE in the past have said they don't understand why people liked it so much. Maybe start there? I'd have the entire team play BC2 and then brainstorm on how to make actual improvements. This series has relied on gimmicks for something they already nailed with older games (destruction), and pushing real predatory mtx for years.

Expectations have been low, you guys have just somehow managed to make each new entry worse than the last.

[LordoftheCritics]

Dice recognized BF3 was their magnum opus.

So they tried to remake that magic with BF4, the disastrous launch killed it. It was too late by the time they fixed the game.

[annoyedgamer]

The only reason the launch was disasterous is because EA rushed the game to release. The game is also not dead. It has loads of players on PC and when I last played on XBL last year.

[JEECE]

Lol you somehow think Battlefield 4 died with the bad launch (it didn't) and that BF1 wasn't successful (it is typically understood to be the best selling BF based early sales and estimates based on total players).

BF3 was great, but it wasn't even until BF4 that the console versions of the games weren't gimped. The PS3/360 versions of BF3 were super gimped compared to the PC version.

[Kaii]

When you've got nothing good to say, say nothing.
"Deleted the tweets. Seems my message wasn’t clear. Apologies."

*Should rename his job title to Clown

[Dirtnapstor]

Yes, I understand that tweaks will always be incoming to make the game "perfect" for our BF pros out there... but I guess I'm not hardcore enough to see all these issues everyone complains about?
Much is aesthetics more than anything. Some complain about not enough weapons, yet they'll run and gun with the same set up for every class. That said, what's the point of having different classes if you can interchange all of the varying weapons/items?
I do want the Scorecard back.
I loved the weapons unlocking system of BF3. It provided directives other than simply stamping out tickets in game, and included real purpose for Specialists.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

Dice has been known to abandon their titles. BF 2042 was a very quickly made title, if it doesn’t retain enough players or meet sales expectations the studio will just move on.

[The-Matrix-has-you]

The battlefield community is very vocal about what they want and have been way before 2042 was in development. Dice and EA obviously didn’t listen. Now they are paying the price.

The maps are way too big, a ton of pointless empty space in every single map. I think they should rework them to be about 65% of what they currently are and reduce the player count down to 64. Remove bots. Increase map destruction and for crying out loud get rid of the horrible specialists.

[outsider1624]

I agree with you on this. When i played the beta, i thought the map was too big. All i did was running towards objective..no enemies on sight and then out of nowhere i get shot. Respawn back..repeat. so frustrating.

I don't remember bf3 being like this.

[PhillyDillyDee]

I have to believe that DICE is being run by EA at this point. The impression exists that DICE had to fight tooth and nail to get portal included to help save face with their core audience. But as we see, not even that saved the game.

[jjb1981]

Battlefield 1 is much better than this crap game. Battlefield 4 is still live and should be what everyone is playing if they want a BF game.

[BrockEmSockEm]

Seeing COD fail so hard this year, EA/Battlefield really had a chance to steal a lot of concurrent players away. It's a damn shame.

[Tedakin]

Haha those brutal fans who pay 70 dollars and expect a game that isn't a broken mess when it launches. What aholes.

[cell989]

Those weather effects they hyped up so much are useless at the core of the game. They should get rid of them and desiccate those wasted resources on better gun play, better animations, better more dynamic destruction.

[Tedakin]

I admit the weather effects in the trailer pulled me in. In the beta I saw the tornado once, thought it was neat. The second time I saw it, the wow factor was already gone and yeah I realized how completely pointless it is other than a neat visual. Also it distracts from the actual game because players stop playing objectives to go fly around in the tornado.

[cell989]

Exactly my thoughts. As I pointed out, those resources could have been used to improve the gameplay in other areas. The melee animations are a start

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I just want ADS to work consistently. That’s a standard expectation for any shooter, a bare necessity; my expectations are not “brutal”.

[moriarty1889]

Fans want a proper BF game with a solid offline campaign and a solid MP. Not an online only crapfest broken at launch. Unreal how many companies have no clue how to put out a complete solid game anymore. Years ago we got great games that were compelling and complete at launch. With all the advancements in tech today they have forgotten how to use it to make good games anymore.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Well, and I hate saying this but, we have shown these companies that we will buy anything that is marketed well. That is why I’m constantly on here scolding people for blindly hyping games when all they have seen is what the publishers deem marketable.

[GameZenith]

This whole BF2042 outrage is the epitome of First World Problems

[PhillyDillyDee]

You are in a climate controlled structure with a steady source of power, using the internet to browse a site posting videogame news.

Would you prefer to discuss the potential world-ending problems of late-stage capitalism?

[anast]

Making a working game based on and expanding on what people love about the game is not a brutal expectation. People might even consider it "their" job...imagine. This is just another uppity game director trying to blame gamers for their mistakes.

[frostypants]

We expected an actual Battlefield game. That isn't brutal. The formula was set. They had to actually work harder to make something this bad.

[PhillyDillyDee]

Hahahaha! Yes I think they actually did have to work harder for this. Great point friend.

[Soulrakk]

Fan expectations are "brutal"? Well, that pretty much confirms the disconnect. I'm not sure what was expected when you change a beloved formula into something nobody ever asked for, only to release it in a broken state. Not hard to figure out what fans want. They want Battlefield. That's not what we got.

[Ninver]

Fk these devs. Fans are not asking for this new bs trend. They're not asking for much. They just want an improved Battlefield that doesn't suck!

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Battlefield 2042 are taking big Ls tbh in my opinion.

[Psychonaut85]

Wouldn’t be brutal if you released a finished f$&king game and gave people what they f”@king paid for. So yeah, f@&k you. Fix it. You literally defrauded people.

[Plagasx]

BC3 or gtfo now.

[isarai]

So what were we supposed to expect? You cut the campaign, and several game modes, yet still charged full price. At that point i certainly wasnt expecting it to be worse off than other entries with campaign included. Game doesn't even FEEL good, it's in every way shape and for a downgrade from previous entries, how tf does that happen when you dont have a campaign to worry about? You'd think then you'd have more resources to ensure a better mp experience, not a worse one. F#@k off EA and DICE

[OhReginald]

It's a always a "problem" or "unfair" or "brutal" when these publishers/devs get called out by fans of the series who buy their damn games.

[Fonsecap]

Yeah our expectations are brutal, wanting a game with all the features a game should have? We're spoiled brats that's what we are, paying only 80eur for a game and wanting it to play properly.

[Stonilein]

This game is a meme now lol

[gold_drake]

i feel like everyone just wants a stable, bug free game at this point.

[slayereddy]

Fans expectations are "brutal" apparently...errr no, they can't even manage what was in previous Battlefield titles. Not interested in the reasons or excuses, fix it, and when you have fixed it we will then know what the real release date should of been.

[slayereddy]

It had taken them 3 years to produce a game with many features missing from previous games, no voice chat, no leaderboards, hardly any weapons, hardly any destruction, forgettable maps and modes. What 2042 did well was what was in the old games brought in by the Portal mode.