EA Deny Rumors Battlefield 2042 Dev Team Reduced To “Skeleton Crew” In Order To Shift Resources Towards Next Entry
Ryan Pearson
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EA have denied rumors that Battlefield 2042 has been abandoned to a “skeleton crew” of developers in order to allow the company to focus on the next game in DICE’s popular franchise.
Source: Battlefield 2042 (2021), EA DICE
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The initial allegation of EA’s shifting development plans came from journalist Jeff Grubb, who during a recent episode of his Grubbsnax podcast, as transcribed from behind a premium paywall by VGC, claimed that EA is utilizing the bare minimum of resources in order to meet their of DLC and four-seasons-of-live-service-content obligations for Battlefield 2042.
“This game is basically down to a skeleton crew,” said Grubb . “It’s down to like the bare bones, and those people are specifically just working on the promised additional seasons that the game needs to meet the requirements of the high-end version that it sold.”
Source: Battlefield 2042 (2021), EA DICE
He further noted that Battlefield 2042’s development had hit “abandon ship time,” while “the skeleton crew is working to pump that stuff out the fastest and the cheapest it possibly can.”
According to Grubb, the reason behind this accelerated development pace and slashing of resources was “to move everyone on to the new Battlefield as fast as possible.”
“The real core crew of Battlefield developers are already working on that,” he added.
Source: Battlefield 2042 (2021), EA DICE
The same day he made his claim, Grubb later reported that EA had “reached out to say this is untrue”.
In a screenshot of an alleged statement sent to him by the developer, EA can be read bluntly responding to Grubb’s claims, “This is untrue.”
“There is a significant team across studios focused on evolving and improving the Battlefield 2042 experience for our players, and at the heart of that is our team at DICE,” EA continued. “We are committed to the future of Battlefield 2042 and our areas of focus for the game, based on what we have heard from our players, was laid out in our recent Development Update.”
Source: Jeff Grubb Twitter
However, despite this refutation, Grubb would later clarify, “My position for these things is consistent: If you hear two stories about what is happening, look for the space where both things are true.”
He concluded by promising to “talk about this more on an upcoming Morning Mess on Giant Bomb so that I can also get their statement on the air.”
Source: Jeff Grubb Twitter
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Widely criticized for its lack of returning features, numerous gameplay inhibiting bugs, and it feeling more like a ‘hero shooter’ than is expected of the series, Battlefield 2042 currently sits as the worst-rated entry in the series entire history.
Not only that, but, as of writing, the game ranks as 11th worst game on Steam, sits at the bottom 100 of titles reviewed by Metacritic, and holds average Metacritic userscore of 1.96.
Source: Battlefield 2042 (2021), EA DICE
EA would later begrudgingly admit the game “did not meet expectations” and that its sales were “disappointing,” with one executive even chalking up the game’s failure to the surprise launch of Halo Infinite’s multiplayer so close to Battlefield 2042.
“It was a small segment of the game, but it was very polished, and it was not a favorable comparison to our experience given some of the bugs and polish issues we had,” EA Chief Studios Officer Laura Miele allegedly admitted to attendees during the company’s internal ‘Town Hall’ quarterly call in February.
Source: Battlefield 2042 (2021), EA DICE
What do you make of EA possibly cutting their losses and moving on from Battlefield 2042? Let us know your thoughts on social media and in the comments down below!
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