Amidst overwhelming demand for Battlefield 2042 refunds, EA seemingly more focused on their image

There seems to be no end to the woes of Battlefield 2042 players. Not only have issues with the game persisted, but there has been no acknowledgement of their grievances from EA and DICE either.

A couple of days back, a report by reputable industry insider Tom Henderson revealed the details of a "town hall" internal meeting. This quarterly meeting is done to assess the hits and misses of the different products of EA. Unfortunately, the latest meeting was dominated by the debacle of Battlefield 2042, as the 2021 release has been a disaster for the company.

The problems need to be diagnosed before they can be fixed and Laura Miele, who led the meeting, shed light on some of the probable causes for Battlefield 2042. While many of the reasons identified are genuine, there was a strange one - the surprise release of Halo Infinite multiplayer. Since then, EA has reached out via another report to state that it didn't blame Halo Infinite, and words were taken out of context.

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EA seemingly more active at repairing their reputation over Battlefield 2042

The news of EA potentially blaming Halo Infinite's multiplayer for Battlefield 2042 broke out nearly a day and a half back. Since then, EA communications VP John Reseburg has said in a statement to PC Gamer that the words were taken out of context, and they never blamed Halo Infinite. He said:

"These stories are not accurately capturing the discussion and the context, which was an in-depth and very humble internal conversation about the recent Battlefield launch."

"It was about key learnings and actions we are taking, not blaming external factors."

It comes in light of Laura Miele's supposed comment that Halo Infinite's multiplayer launch was more polished, and how dented DICE and EA's attempts to fix Battlefield 2042. But based on the latest statements, EA seems to have retracted what they had said earlier.

In some sense, the original article didn't use direct quotes, so there could have been a case of misinterpretation. But unless Laura Miele's statements are radically different, there seems to be an indirect push of blame on the comparison with Halo Infinite. One thing is for certain - EA has quickly attempted to clean up their image in this context, which is surprising in another sense.

A fan petition seeking refunds for Battlefield 2042 has garnered over 200,000 signatures. While EA may not have to refund the players, there could have been at least some form of acknowledgment about the same. Saying that Battlefield 2042's reception has been poor and hasn't done well financially isn't an acknowledgment.

If the investor meeting or the town hall meeting are dissected, there seems to be a narrative that players haven't accepted the changes DICE and EA have made to Battlefield 2042 compared to previous releases. However, the problem is not with the players when several items shown in the trailer have not made it to the actual game.

The game, released as a multiplayer-only experience, launched without a functional scoreboard. VOIP was also absent and is being worked on. These are fundamental elements of any video game designed around fast-paced gameplay and teamwork. Then there's the lack of overall content, making the game feel barebones at times.

Season one of Battlefield 2042 had been included in the costlier editions of the game, but that has now been delayed. So players who paid more and expected to play season one will have to wait until early summer to get them.

Games are seldom released as perfectly finished products these days. For example, Halo Infinite still has bugs, but 343 Industries have been open about the solutions. The same can be said about Techland, who routinely acknowledge bugs in Dying Light 2, especially if they're major ones.

In the meeting, Laura Miele supposedly said that Battlefield 2042 faced optimization issues and bugs, and that the Covid situation hasn't made things any easier. But the big question thus arises - why was the game released in 2021? Battlefield doesn't have a fixed annual cycle like Call of Duty games. If the game wasn't ready, it shouldn't have been released.

But the release shows EA's mentality towards the fans and the perceived notion that the latter believed in the series' reputation enough to look past any flaws. But reputation and past accolades aren't enough. It took two days for EA to respond to a potential misinterpretation of its statements.

It has been two weeks since the petition was created, but it has not been acknowledged by the company. As of this writing, the fact remains that Battlefield 2042's player count has steadily declined on Steam and that more than 200,000 people want EA to refund them their purchase.