Vince Zampella Says Battlefield 2042 “Got Too Far From What Battlefield Is”

Vince Zampella, director of Respawn Entertainment and boss of the Battlefield franchise, has spoken about the reception – and failure – of the series’ latest entry, Battlefield 2042, suggesting it “strayed too far” from its roots. .

Battlefield 2042 was plagued with technical issues and controversial design decisions when it launched last year, quickly attracting overwhelmingly negative reviews from gamers on Steam.

Since then, developer DICE has continued to tweak and expand on Battlefield 2042’s wobbly base, but it often feels like too little, too late – with publisher EA admitting the game’s sales “didn’t live up to expectations”. saying, “Some of the design choices we made…didn’t affect everyone in our community”.

And now franchise boss Vince Zampella has weighed in on his own thoughts on the reasons for Battlefield 2042’s struggles, telling financial news publication Barrons (thanks VGC), “I think they’ve just gotten a little too much. far removed from what Battlefield is”.

Expanding on this and referencing Battlefield 2042’s now defunct 128-player Breakthrough mode, Zampella added, “They tried to do a few things that were maybe ambitious: increase the number of players, etc. I don’t think not that they spent enough time iterating on what makes it fun.”

“It’s not a bad idea per se,” he continued. “The way they were set up and the way they executed just didn’t allow them to come up with the best thing possible.”

Following the commercial and critical failure of Battlefield 2042, EA announced that it was rethinking the development process for the series “from the ground up”, more recently explaining that it was “coordinating multiple studios…to build a universe Battlefield connected”.

As for Battlefield 2042, DICE continues to work on the beleaguered shooter, recently releasing its generally well-received second season.