Battlefield 2042 Going Free-To-Play?
It looks like Battlefield 2042 is going to be free-to-play. It's a major development for the much embattled game that's struggled to release
This article is more than 2 years old
Months of rumor and speculation surrounding Battlefield 2042, during its pre-release period, led to an insanely strong start for the newest addition to the Battlefield franchise. However, its performance issues, XP progression, and a very moderate amount of available content paired with a not-so-moderate number of bugs and glitches led to a declining player count for one of the most popular first-person shooter games on the current market. As a result, EA might consider making the game free-to-play in the future.
A prominent Battlefield leaker with a solid track record, Tom Henderson, said that EA is very disappointed with the performance of Battlefield 2042 and is considering all possible options for the future of the Battlefield gaming series. As reported by GamesRadar+, those options might include the free-to-play model, at least in some capacity. Could this be the turning point for the series; news that’s certainly on par with the latest news regarding the Call of Duty franchise and its divulsion from the annual release schedule? You can see Henderson’s tweet below:
Well, Henderson may be right. Electronic Arts and its subsidiaries are notoriously known for relentless money-grabbing practices through loot boxes and pay-to-win systems, often preying on young gamers with access to their parent’s credit cards. And EA will do anything to save Battlefield 2042 and earn more cash, including making the game free-to-play but pay-to-win. Don’t get us wrong, most gaming companies are using this “passive-aggressive” monetization system, but it appears that EA Games accidentally dropped the “passive” somewhere along the way.
Fan reception of Battlefield 2042 has been very poor, with concerns raised over performance, gunplay, and numerous bugs and glitches plaguing the game. For those unfamiliar with the situation, the game that allows you to fight tornados suffered from major issues even during its Early Access stage when it caused massive-scale crashes on Xbox consoles. Any bugs and errors of that scope should have been removed during the early development stage or closed-beta testing at the latest. EA Games addressed the issue of crashing Xbox consoles, but the number of problems just continued to rise once Early Access went live across several platforms on November 19.
It didn’t take long for Battlefield 2042 to become one of the worst-reviewed games on Valve’s PC digital storefront, with gamers complaining about the game’s exceptionally poor performance left and right. Adding insult to injury was the fact that the voice chat was missing from the game entirely, which is inconceivable for modern online FPSs. There were also malfunctioning scoreboards and poor design of the new operating system within the game. It would seem that all the indicators of rushed deadlines and poor game optimization are present. There’s no such thing as free lunch, EA Games; you of all game publishers should know that. What did you expect would happen?
With everything in mind, EA’s disappointment with Battlefield 2042 seems unsurprising to anyone but the company itself and to an extent to which it’s willing to offer the title for free. Admittedly, free-to-play would be a significant adjustment that would certainly attract new players that might even be tolerant towards EA’s slip-ups, but it certainly isn’t the only option on the table for the company.
