Updated Story (21/02/22)
EA has pushed back against previous reports that they are blaming Battlefield 2042's underwhelming sales on Halo Infinite's surprise release. John Reseburg, EA communications VP, issued a statement to PC Gamer claiming that the quotes were misinterpreted.
These stories are not accurately capturing the discussion and the context, which was an in-depth and very humble internal conversation about the recent Battlefield launch.
Reseburg assures that the blame-game is not being played and Infinite did not impact 2042's launch:
It was about key learnings and actions we are taking, not blaming external factors.
Either way, it's clear that 2042 has disappointed the company in its opening three months. DICE is looking to work on a few fixes along with Season One; the latter of which has seen a major delay.
Original Story (17/02/22) -
It's no secret Battlefield 2042 didn't have the greatest launch. Following a flurry of performance issues and missing features like a scoreboard, some streamers were quick to label the new shooter as the "worst" series launch ever.
Electronic Arts has tried to wrap its head around what happened, after initiating a town hall meeting for its upper management. The publisher acknowledges the game hasn't hit expectations, asserting that 2042 has been negatively impacted by Halo Infinite and even the pandemic (via Xfire).
EA Reportedly Blames Battlefield 2042’s Poor Launch on Halo Infinite and COVID-19
EA's Chief Studios Officer, Laura Miele, expressed the bright future initially planned for 2042. During the discussions, Miele mentioned that these prospects were not met following the sequel's release:
It's really important to acknowledge when we have misses. This is certainly the case with the Battlefield launch, which failed to meet the expectations of our players, and also clearly missed our own expectations.
Like many recent games, the pandemic was a big factor that stifled development. The combination of recreating the shooter from scratch and working from home presented new challenges to DICE and co:
Add up all of this new innovation, all of this ambition for the new project, and then you add a global pandemic halfway into the project, where the game teams had to work from home, we ended up with more new variables in development than we have ever experienced before.
But what's somewhat surprising is that Miele has reportedly pinned some of the blame on Halo Infinite.
Microsoft launched the shooter a few days after 2042, which was considered more "polished" than DICE's latest. Given 2042's mirage of poor reviews on Steam and Infinite's 20th Anniversary early launch, EA saw its player count slowly depreciate.
That's compounded by the fact that EA refused to provide sales numbers for the sequel. On the other hand, Infinite marks Halo's best launch ever.
Battlefield 2042 continues to have problems, with season one seeing a major delay into the summer. Fans continue to voice their frustrations, as a petition asking for a refund is circulating and has now reached more than 200k signatures.
Halo Infinite is planning to launch Forge Mode and another classic feature very soon, while split-screen co-op is coming. We'll keep you informed with further news as we hear more about both games.
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