For the most part, EA’s most recent quarterly earnings statement was a positive one. The games publisher says that the fiscal quarter ending on December 31st, 2021 was “the largest quarter in the company’s history for net bookings, underlying profitability and cash generation,” according to CFO Blake Jorgensen. Games like Apex Legends and FIFA continue to be hits. But there was one noticeable issue: Battlefield 2042. “The launch of Battlefield 2042 did not meet expectations,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during the earnings call.
The game, which launched in November after a last-minute delay, was built on the idea of scale, with gigantic multiplayer battles and even features like dynamic weather in the form of tornadoes. According to Wilson, that ambition, combined with the challenges of developing a game remotely, are what led to Battlefield 2042’s ongoing issues.
“Battlefield 2042 was always an ambitious game, and our teams pushed to innovate across many dimensions, including massive scale and 128 player matches, new modes, new dynamic gameplay, and more,” he explained. “Developing this game with our teams working from home for nearly two years ultimately proved to be challenging. Through our processes for testing and preparation, we believed the experience was ready to be put in our players’ hands. We launched with strong stability; however, as more players experienced the full game, it became clear there were unanticipated performance issues that we would need to address. Some of the design choices we made with the game also did not resonate with everyone in our community.”
Earlier today, EA announced that it was delaying the game’s upcoming season to this summer, which it said “gives us the time to focus on improving the Battlefield 2042 experience while finalizing the development of our seasonal content to ensure that it all reaches our standard for quality.” Despite the 2042’s early struggles, Wilson says the publisher is “fully committed to realizing the full potential of this game.”