EA acknowledges Battlefield 2042 failure with Town Hall post-mortem

From Tom Henderson on Xfire: "EA management ran a company 'Town Hall' meeting call today, giving previously unknown insight as to how the launch of Battlefield 2042 has been perceived internally by key executives."

[LordoftheCritics]

''EA acknowledged that the company has historically had bug issues with DICE games at launch, and that the bug count for Battlefield 2042 did fall into the range that they would have expected when compared to other launches. So, it was believed that the issues would be manageable''

Something terrifying about this statement.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

I think the whole thing but idk.

[porkChop]

That's the problem. I get that games are complex and that there will be bugs on day 1. Fine, fix them asap. But BF launches have been horrible. Far beyond the amount of bugs and performance issues that people would expect. It's mind boggling that EA has looked at previous BF launches and thought, "yeah that's an acceptable amount of issues.

[Smok91]

The moment I shot a car window and it legitimately took 1-2 seconds to break I knew this game was f’d. I’ve never seen such poor optimization except maybe some Alphas I tried and immediately quit.

[patrick1]

EA has always proven that they are all about the bottom line and don't give a dam about releasing polished games. That's why Anthem failed, Madden failed this year, and now Battlefield. They are in danger of losing Fifa also. They don't give a shit about their developers because people still buy these games.

[Yi-Long]

If the suits believe the only big problem with BF2042 is/was “too many bugs”, and not the actual game itself, then there’s no hope whatsoever that they have a clue about why this failed miserably.

[DogJosha]

My final straw was finding out I was having a hard time getting into games just to find out other people were in lobbies full of AI, and they claimed AI would simply give up their spot for real players. This is PvP. There shouldn't be any damn AI to begin with...

[metalgod88]

The problems with Battlefield 2042 go WAY beyond bugs. Fundamentally, the game is just lacking the majority of what we have come to expect. It's fine to try something new, but when you completely take away everything we love about the series, it's not Battlefield anymore.

And then if you include all the bugs and issues, what is there is just not fun to play. Even with friends, I struggled to enjoy what was there. I was literally seeing my sniper bullets go through the enemies lol. It's problems go way beyond the game.

[Juancho51]

Theyre basically saying, "Consumers have allowed us to get away with bugged releases for so long, that it is now an expected norm for all our releases. We expected bugs on this level, and we were sure we'd be able to manage and eliminate the bugs while still providing a positive gaming experience. Fuck your wallets, cream get the money, wu-tang 4 life.

[yeahokwhatever]

yep. its a culture of failure.

[Profchaos]

I think the problem is they believe they were justified in putting out a unfinished game.

When I played the open beta on ps5 I saw issues where the skybox flickered black like it was the late 90s PC gaming with a outdated driver and launch was right around the corner there was no way they could take all the bugs while balancing the game.

Launch day came around and some issues were fixed but it was still a joke.

Player counts have fallen so low that this isn't going to be redeemed I think it's another anthem again.

[senorfartcushion]

Anybody who tries to justify live service games don’t understand why they exist.

They exist to be launched broken and to help generate perpetual “engagement “ with updates

[Crows90]

Broken and/or incomplete.

[NickN]

Bingo! Ding, ding, ding! These corpos are releasing alpha/beta games, and then having the consumers pay for it as they go.

[Gardenia]

A couple months later now and they could have changes 2 or 3 maps by now if they would be serious about the game. Nothing is going to change really.

[Crows90]

Triple A used to mean quality. So basically now we know that EA are used to creating rushed content at a premium price. And do so knowing that they wouldn't function properly at launch which is when you get the most sales.

[Kaozz1979]

Yes, we would all have been so much more happy if Halo didn't release. We would have never known what a working, polished multiplayer game looks like and then, just THEN we would have realized what state BF2042 was/is in. C'mon man. Maybe its time to ditch DICE and look for another developer.

[FanboysKiller]

No campaign.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

"Acquisition by Electronic Arts (2006–present)" should have never happened. DICE needed to be independent. Which is why I gave up on Battlefield long ago. My favorite will always be the original + 2 expansions, and Vietnam, then BF2.

[asapas8]

Live service should die ASAP

[glenn1979]

Witch one is has the worst lauch?
Cyber punk
Battlefield 2042
Crossfre X

[SonyStyled]

The one with the broomstick

[L1ghtz4lyfe]

Wouldn't it be crazy if we could take a poll of the people who pre-ordered this. A poll of people who bought it before waiting for a review. Compare it to their dissatisfaction with the game. I wonder how many wonder how they keep getting taken advantage of. It's like that meme of the kid riding a bike and putting a stick in the front spokes.

Consumers LITERALLY have the entire persuasive argument in how a game is released. If you buy it without considering the credibility of the company you are telling that company that regardless of what they put out, your going to consume it. If I go to a restaurant and have a bad experience, then go back the next week and have the same experience without sending a message am I at fault for going back or are they for not fixing something I was still willing to pay for. Whether its morally or ethically acceptable or not has nothing to do with money for these companies.

Its all about numbers, where are you putting your numbers? Oh that's right FOMO (Fear of missing out) runs the entire gaming community now.

[Chocoburger]

Excellent and accurate post. The problem are the buyers of these unfinished products, if they stopped watching fake hype trailers that make games look good, such as the shit GTA Trilogy, and instead waited on reviews, more games would flop.

When games flop, less currency is generated, and maybe, just maybe, there may be a chance that the shit-for-brains executives will learn a lesson in how to treat their fans properly. Its not like these companies are running on fumes, desperate to keep their doors open, they already have billions in the bank, they can afford to delay the release of their games by an additional year if need be.

On one hand I want to feel bad for the developers, not only crunching endlessly prior to launch, but after release they now have to rush out patch after patch after patch. But then again, if they stay working at that shit company, they have no one to blame but themselves. When you put in an application to work at EA, you're asking to be taken advantage of, treated like shit, and all the micro-trash-action currency (which amount to billions each year), goes to the executives, instead of the worker bees.

The best thing we can do is put these trash companies out of business. If only gamers knew how to enact some self-control. Alas, we get the industry that we deserve.

[Demetrius]

I will never understand why they cancelled Star Wars 1313 just to turn around and be like OH WE GOT NEW STAR WARS TITLES IN THE WORKS smh that’s so stupid man like just bring it back smh these games companies nowadays are going under we only got a few dedicated ones left smh

[CorndogBurglar]

Even without bugs, the core of the game doesn't feel like Battlefield. They can't fix or patch that. The bugs and glitches just make it sloppy.

[Phoenix76]

So basically, EA knew the game was f@#&ed from the start. Didn't care about putting out a finished product. Once got people's money....... well, they don't care really give a toss now. Might have an update late summer, but expect that to be delayed as well before they declare it dead.