“It was tough disappointing Battlefield 2042 players”

Battlefield 2042 and DICE/EA have received harsh criticism since their release in November, and given the shooter’s state, quite rightly so. Now the head of the studio, Rebecka Coutaz, who has been in office since December, talks about the situation in an interview.

30 years of DICE, 20 years of Battlefield

After DICE had to move the chair after the catastrophe, the experienced manager took over responsibility. In the interview with Gamesindustry.biz Coutaz speaks plain language. Still, given the turmoil in the boardroom and the negative reactions to Battlefield 2042, drawing a line under the game was never an option. “We couldn’t do that to our players or to ourselves,” said Coutaz. It took months to analyze together with all the studios involved how this end result could have come about.

The results of the analysis are now being implemented. This includes reorganizations and restructuring, improved processes, better hybrid development and much more “to make these monster games”. All developers want to change and are very motivated. It’s far from perfect, but we’re on the right track. The goal is to improve the core gameplay experience and the launch of Season 1 has resulted in good feedback from players. The team has a great passion for Battlefield, in fact many Battlefield veterans work at DICE. So it’s important to “improve Battlefield 2042 and the experience we can offer our players. We owe it to them,” Coutaz said.

DICE doesn’t have time for other projects apart from Battlefield. Just focus on Battlefield 2042 (buy now €31.99). In three years, DICE should be the number one for first-person shooter games in Europe. Coutaz wants the team to be “really proud of Battlefield 2042.” And of course that should also apply to the players. This year DICE is celebrating 30 years as a studio and soon 20 years of Battlefield – the first game in the series, Battlefield 1942, was released on September 20th, 2002 in Europe. You have players “who have been with us for 20 years – and disappointing them was really hard for us,” said Coutaz.

With the launch of Battlefield 2042 Season 1: Zero Hour, the Player counts on Steam clearly on. Up to 10,000 parallel players are currently at the start again, more than twice as many as in May. Consent on Steam but has not improved significantly. The long-term approval is at 29 percent, the short-term at 35 percent – each is “largely negative”.