Battlefield 2042 could bring the series into an unprecedented dark period, as many fear the game will be forgotten when DICE fixes it.
Last week was especially stressful for Battlefield fans and developer DICE. The studio has announced that the first season of the game will be delayed by a few months. What many thought would arrive in March is now landing sometime around June. Instead, the developers will use this break to address long-standing issues and potentially change some of the most controversial design decisions made during the development of Battlefield 2042.
Meanwhile, publisher EA pretty much pretended the game didn’t even exist in its third-quarter financial report and launch. When asked about Battlefield 2042’s performance and its thoughts on the launch, EA expressed disappointment, admitting it had several issues. However, EA is adamant that DICE will get things back on track, as the developers have fixed similar issues in the past.
The inescapable fact that all of this means Battlefield 2042 won’t get any new content for a few months. In engagement-related competitions, many Battlefield content creators have publicly announced that they are quitting the game.
The latest victim of this lack of interest is Stodeh, one of several YouTube anchors who built a career on battlefield coverage before moving on to other popular shooters like Warzone. Stodeh posted a video over the weekend announcing that while they’ll be covering Battlefield 2042 news, they won’t be airing it on their channel until the new content arrives.
Before that, another Battlefield creator, Westie, also recently told his followers that he was leaving 2042, explaining that they are no fun playing the game at all right now. Criticisms for both videos were fairly mild, but other creators were much sharper when it came to abandoning the game.
For example, AKA-ART, which played almost exclusively Battlefield games, almost quit after Battlefield 2042 failed to deliver.
Meanwhile, other Battlefield content creators, like TheBrokenMachine, have quietly left the game, either going back to past Battlefield games or focusing on other popular shooters. LevelCapGaming and Jackfrags are the only two major creators who regularly release Battlefield 2042 content, although even in the latter case it’s less frequent.
It’s not hard to see why this is the case. Battlefield 2042 continues to lose players across all platforms. This lack of player interest is reflected in the under-viewing on YouTube and Twitch, which is the main reason all these creators are leaving – there is no money at all.
Battlefield 4 is often a game’s closest point of comparison, and this game’s extremely difficult launch turned things around. But as many have gone on to point out, Battlefield 4’s problems are mostly with stability and bugs, not its basic design. The fact that Battlefield 4 has received several new expansions by the time Battlefield 2042 gets its first new content makes any potential turnaround in 2042 even more unlikely.
Meanwhile, Battlefield fans have returned to past games to find a fix. Battlefield 5 saw the largest increase in player numbers, followed by Battlefield 1. These two games actually rank well above 2042 on the Steam Most Popular Games list.
