Battlefield 2042 is a bad game and you should not buy it. That seems to be the prevailing thought from most fans who have played the game for any length of time since its release just a couple of days back. It's a game that is full of bugs, barren maps, idiotic Specialists, a huge focus on vehicular combat, and more missing "legacy" features than you can shake a stick at.
It should perhaps come as no surprise that DICE parent company, EA, has decided to do some "restructuring" with the Battlefield team after this largely disastrous release. Yes, this is the same EA that was probably largely to blame for many of the major changes made to the franchise, but that's a story for another time. This restructuring is seeing some major changes from the top down at DICE.
First off, EA has announced the creation of a "connected Battlefield universe." Much like there is an annual release of Call of Duty, you can probably start to expect the same for Battlefield. There will be new games from multiple studios including Ripple Effect. We'll have more on this later.
In addition, DICE general manager Oskar Gabrielson is leaving the company. He will be pursuing a "new endeavor outside of EA," according to GameSpot. Gabrielson will be leaving DICE at the end of the year. Stepping in to take on a bigger role as the head cheese of the Battlefield franchise is Respawn Entertainment's Vince Zampella.
Rebecka Coutaz was a former studio director at Ubisoft. She will be taking over for Gabrielson as the GM of DICE after his departure.
In addition, Halo designer Marcus Lehto is creating a new development team that will be "focused on injecting more storytelling into the Battlefield universe." Lehto designed Master chief and "played a major role in making Halo what it is today." So, that sounds promising. Then again, Lehto had also previous formed the studio V1 Interactive before moving to EA. V1 Interactive created Disintegration, which we felt was severely lacking and quickly lost its already small audience. Let's just hope that this expansion of the Battlefield 2042 storyline doesn't include tonally out of place end of round quips from people you want to punch in the face.
Ripple Effect, the studio that created Battlefield 2042's Portal mode, will be developing an entire new Battlefield experience set in the Battlefield 2042 universe. There's no word on if this means a new game or game mode. It could be both as it seems that Ripple Effect will be continuing to work on supporting Portal while also working on new experiences.
EA says that DICE, Ripple Effect, and the new Seattle team will be working together to "expand upon and improve Battlefield 2042." The projects that these studios are working on will be "extensions" to this whole Battlefield universe that EA is trying to make. There were no specifics about what any of these new games and experiences will be, or when they may launch.
Byron Beede, a veteran from the Call of Duty franchise was hired by EA earlier this year to grow the Battlefield series. Beede says that Marcus Lehto and his new studio will "lay the foundation for 'storytelling opportunities now and well into the future'." These "opportunities" created by Lehto will reportedly show up in later Battlefield 2042 season "and beyond."
EA COO Laura Miele says that Vince Zampella is the "right person to lead the Battlefield franchise into the future, building off his past successes with Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, and Apex Legends." I guess EA forgot about Titanfall and even Titanfall 2's fantastic single-player campaign already.
"He creates culture-defining entertainment that resonants beyond games. We are bringing one of the most influential and talented individuals in entertainment to a franchise that is ready to be unleashed into the modern era of gaming. It's an extraordinary inflection point in game history. His ability to lead studios and bring developers together so they can create world-class experiences is unmatched," Miele said. "I believe the structure, process, and vision he brings will enable Battlefield to excel like never before. No one knows shooters and live services better than Vince."
EA CEO Andrew Wilson says that the company may one day develop a free-to-play Battlefield game. Yes, this has already been done before. In fact, it's been done a couple of times in the past with Battlefield Heroes and Battlefield Play4Free. Zampella did not confirm anything about an upcoming F2P title saying only that they are "exploring every possibility to help it reach its full potential."
Byron Beede says that EA has already created a "long-term plan" on how to support Battlefield in the future. No specifics were given on that yet as the company wants to first focus on supporting Battlefield 2042 and expanding it as a live-service title.
In the here and now, it remains to be seen what impact any of these changes will have on Battlefield 2042 or the Battlefield franchise as a whole.
