"Battlefield 2042," despite all of the hype surrounding it ahead of its launch, has failed spectacularly by all accounts. It seems to be just another cautionary tale involving EA's questionable business practices, but company executives aren't even blaming themselves for its failure.
Battlefield 2042 screenshot taken from official Steam page
According to Kotaku, the reason why the latest "Battlefield" game was a disaster is twofold: the "Halo" franchise and the COVID-19 pandemic. This was apparently one of the subjects of a "town hall" meeting held by EA executives.
Putting the blame on Xbox's preeminent FPS franchise is EA Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele. According to her, "Halo Infinite" gave players a point of comparison for being polished, while "2042" came out full of bugs and lacked a bit of shine.
As for the pandemic, EA blaming their AAA shooter's troubles on it seems to be quite understandable. In a report by The Gamer, it was revealed that a good chunk of the game's development was done completely remote. Miele argues that the work-from-home conditions added "new variables" in the game's development, which led to struggles during the development cycle for the game.
Lastly, the final few parts of this blame game is put on EA's now-aging Frostbite Engine. The engine itself was first used way back in 2008, and has not seen many big changes since its earliest iterations.
Executives are blaming the old engine for the many game-breaking bugs that have plagued "Battlefield 2042" since its release, saying that it had to undergo a "massive" upgrade to make it ready for next-gen consoles. As per the original report from The Gamer, the aforementioned upgrade took a long 18 months to complete.
Either way, all of this points to EA looking for scapegoats at this point. "Halo Infinite" and "Battlefield 2042" are completely different games despite being the same genre. Some will argue that at the end of the day, the decision to rush the game to meet a release date was the fault of EA themselves, and not the "more polished" competition.
Read Also: 'Battlefield 2042' Now One of the Worst-Reviewed Games on Steam Ever
How Has 'Battlefield 2042' Fared After All The Updates?
To cut the long story short, not good. Even several months after release, the game still seems to be a buggy, broken mess. While the latest Patch 3.2 does fix a lot of things, "2042's" performance still leaves a lot to be desired, as shown here in this comparison video:
As you can see there, the game's performance actually worsened after the new update in some cases, while it looks to have plateaued in most other situations. In other words, the game either plays worse or the same as before, there's no noticeable improvement whatsoever.
Furthermore, one of the most requested updates to the game (the scoreboard) scheduled to come in Patch 3.3 has been delayed to March. PCGamer reports that the delay is due to the team at EA needing "extra time" to ensure the improved quality of updates.
With just how broken this AAA shooter is, no wonder why players are flocking to "Halo Infinite" and have made it the largest launch in franchise history. Sorry, EA: looks like you still have a mountain of work to do if you want to compete.
Related Article: 'Battlefield 2042' Was Originally Planned To Be A Battle Royale Game
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
