Battlefield 2042 hasn’t been in good shape since its launch late last year. Amid a host of technical bugs and game-spoiling issues, players fled DICE’s competitive multiplayer shooter, which at one point fell below its player count. nine-year predecessor Battlefield 4. But it won’t just be fans of the series leaving the game anymore, as content has also started to get canceled.
announced in a Tweeterthe game’s featured experiences – a selection of rotating game modes created using Battlefield 2042The mechanical setting gate function of – has been changed. The number of Featured Experiences active at any time has been reduced from five to three, meaning players will have fewer special game modes to choose from.
As players were quick to point out on Twitter and Reddit, this reduction in the number of active game modes seems to scale with the number of sick players in the game. With fewer players starting the game, matches are slow to fill up and wait times are noticeably long. By reducing the number of game modes available, DICE can concentrate the game’s smallest player base into a handful of matches, ensuring servers are kept close to, or closer to, full capacity.
On Thursday, March 24, we’re changing the rotation of featured experiences in #BattlefieldPortalHere’s a 🧵 on what’s changing 👀 pic.twitter.com/6PHL0OmYmcMarch 22, 2022
Empty servers have been a sticking point for many BF2042 players over the past couple of months, with those in less populated server regions, such as Australia and South Africa, struggling to find multiplayer matches.
But these changes are not a good look for DICE. Restoring content for any game is rarely welcomed by fans, but doing so among an exodus of players only makes Battlefield 2042 even more fragile. The perception that DICE had to reduce active content in response to the game’s low player base does not inspire confidence in the title’s longevity.
Additional changes are also introduced. Featured Experiences will now spin twice a week, every Monday and Thursday, instead of just once. This should give players a variety of game modes to play over a week, although the number of active modes has been reduced.
In addition to this, a dedicated Friday Night Battleground event will take place at the end of each week. Again, hosting an additional, but temporary, event allows DICE to focus players on a few full matches.
Analysis: How much longer can Battlefield 2042 last?
This rework of Battlefield 2042 content should come as no big surprise. The game has been struggling for months, and if DICE wants to preserve the minimal playerbase remaining in the game, it will need to rework its multiplayer structure to cater for lower player counts. With maps designed for 128 vs. 128 player matches, which DICE has already admitted to being too bigmore work will need to be done to adapt the game to its current state.
However, fans are particularly disappointed with DICE’s continued inability to properly acknowledge Battlefield 2042’s stance. Take a look at the game’s official or sparse social media channels blogpageand you’d be hard pressed to find anything to suggest the game is in dire straits.
Rolling out updates like this, which many suspect have more to do with the game’s sickness of players than improving the core Battlefield experience, does nothing to mend the lost goodwill between DICE and its community. It’s likely that Battlefield 2042 will be remembered as the flop of the Battlefield series, but whether DICE can mend the lost faith in time for its next installment remains up in the air.
