EA’s Vince Zampella acknowledges that Battlefield 2042 was a misstep for the series, although he doesn’t hate it completely.
Between its buggy launch, inconsistent updates, lack of a single-player campaign, and an unpopular Specialists system, there’s no denying that Battlefield 2042 has failed to resonate with long-time fans of the series.
Although EA has denied that it’s abandoning the game any time soon, both it and developer DICE seem to be aware that a course correction is needed.
Vince Zampella, who now oversees the entire Battlefield series, has also recently described Battlefield 2042 as something of a misstep.
As a reminder, Zampella is in charge of Apex Legends studio Respawn Entertainment and was the head of Call Of Duty studio Infinity Ward until 2010.
Last December, a month after Battlefield 2042’s launch, it was announced that he was being put in charge of the series to manage a new interconnected universe of Battlefield games.
In a recent interview, Zampella commented on Battlefield 2042’s struggles, saying it wasn’t inherently a bad idea, but one that wasn’t executed well.
‘I think they just strayed a little too far from what Battlefield is,’ he said, as transcribed by VGC. ‘They tried to do a couple of things that were maybe ambitious: grow the player count etc. I don’t think they spent enough time iterating on what makes that fun.
‘It’s not inherently a bad idea. The way they were set up and the way they executed just didn’t allow them to find the best thing possible.’
One example he’s possibly referring to is the aforementioned Specialists system. Instead of the tried-and-true class system of previous games, DICE added unique characters with their own personalities, akin to something like Apex Legends.
Following its poor reception, EA and DICE have opted to rework the system so it’s more in-line with the previous games. However, players need to wait until season 3 for the revised system, which may not arrive until 2023.
In the meantime, work has already begun on a couple other Battlefield projects; one of which will be a new single-player campaign.
Battlefield 2042 is available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
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