What went wrong in Battlefield 2042? Insider gives insights into development chaos

On December 7, 2021By Garmin Philip

Battlefield 2042 got off to one, if not the most difficult start in the history of the shooter franchise. Numerous problems and changes caused anger among the fans. Industry insider Tom Henderson now shows in a report how this could happen and what is planned for the future.

Who is that anyway? Henderson is a well-known insider on Battlefield and other big ranks like Call of Duty. He is well connected in the industry and has a direct line to many developers. He leaked a lot of information about Battlefield 2042 in advance:

The latest report now revolves around the development of Battlefield 2042 and the problems that plagued developer DICE since the also difficult release of Battlefield V.

The report, which Henderson released as a 30-minute video, revolves around numerous retired employees who played key roles in the development of Battlefield and how decisions by publisher EA influenced the direction of Battlefield 2042.

Henderson also gives a brief glimpse into the future of Battlefield. We summarize the most important information from the report for you.

The report has not been officially confirmed by EA. Even if Henderson is often correct, this information should still be taken with caution.

The beginnings of Battlefield 2042 were marked by departures

This is how it went at DICE after the Battlefield V release: The problems started right away with the departure of numerous important characters from DICE who left the studio after the release of Battlefield V.

The list is quite extensive, as Henderson shows in his video. 18 senior employees left the studio at the time, including people like:

Patrick Bach, Executive Producer, has been with DICE for 15 years.
Anders Gyllenberg, Senior Development Director, had been with DICE for 12 years.
Jörgen Carlström, Senior Development Director, had been with DICE for 18 years.
Gustav Tilleby, Art Director, has been with DICE for 20 years.
Patrick Söderlund, Vice President, had been with DICE for 18 years.

Here you can see the exits in a table by Tom Henderson himself:

It is noticeable that numerous employees have come together to form a new studio, the Embark Studios. Others have found jobs with well-known employers in the industry, such as Ubisoft, Paradox Interactive (publisher of Crusader Kings) or Remedy Entertainment (Alan Wake, Control).

However, these are “only” leaders. Over 100 developers, designers and technicians have left DICE in the past few years.

Why did so many leave the studio? According to Henderson, it had to do with the messed up release of Battlefield V and the direction EA was going for Battlefield.

For example, a battle royale mode was implemented with Firestorm, while other ideas from the developers were probably ignored.
EA apparently wanted to orientate itself on other games and what was successful at the time.
Concrete examples here are Fortnite or PUBG, which stirred up the industry at the time.
Of course, there are also normal developments in the employment relationship.

According to Henderson, the former employees no longer wanted creative freedom and the line. So Battlefield V’s own Battle Royale mode was only developed when numerous leading figures were already gone and could not be booked as a success.

Still, many of the features and choices made for Battlefield 2042 came about during this time. This includes, for example, the new drop feature of vehicles, or the modification of weapons within a game on the battlefield.

The game was originally intended to be a battle royale title, but before that there were other hurdles that had to be overcome.

Technical problems with engine and cross-gen, experienced employees were missing

These were the first problems: The studio first had to come together again, the engine had to be brought up to date and a number of other hurdles had to be overcome.

The departures left a huge gap on the technical level alone: the due upgrade of the Frostbite engine. According to Henderson, Battlefield V was developed with a 2016 version of the engine. As a reminder: Battlefield V was released in 2018.

DICE apparently has problems to bring the engine up to date to this day, as the people behind Frostbite are no longer working at DICE.

Henderson here quotes an unnamed former developer:

3 years of development, 18 months that were actually only needed to get Battlefield to run on a new engine, that much had to be rewritten. Unfortunately, because of the upheaval at DICE, so many experienced employees who originally developed and designed the systems were no longer there.

via YouTube

There was also another big problem: Battlefield 2042 had to be developed for 5 different platforms. There are versions for the old consoles PS4 and Xbox One, as well as the technically more powerful platforms PS5, Xbox Series and PC.

This complicated development, as you had to get the game to work on outdated hardware. At the same time, the stronger platforms were upgraded to 128 players, something that has not yet existed in the series. That was a feature that DICE had already discarded in Battlefield 3 in 2013.

In 2020, the game was actually still in the concept phase and shouldn’t even become a Battlefield offshoot.

The decision was made early on to delete the familiar classes and introduce the new specialists. These are very reminiscent of the operators from Call of Duty. The development was evidently based on successful BR titles such as Warzone.

The decision to develop a Battlefield was apparently only made between April and August 2020.

The actual game was developed in less than 1.5 years

When did the actual development begin? According to Henderson, the concept phase wasn’t completed until August 2020. Thus, the actual production started just 1 year and three months before the “gold status” of the game. “Gold status” means that production has officially been completed.

The first, leaked trailer in early 2021 still made use of assets from Battlefield 3 and 3. During the same period, an EA officer said that Battlefield 2042 was way ahead of the actual schedule and that development was going well.

This is in contrast to Henderson’s portrayal. At the time, DICE was completely overwhelmed and got help from external studios such as Ripple Effect (responsible for the Battlefield Portal) and Criterion Games.

The technical difficulties in the development continued and dragged on into the phase in which the alpha and beta of Battlefield 2042 should appear. The release was finally postponed from October 22nd to November 19th, and the beta finally took place in October.

Here, for the first time, the public could see for themselves what state the game was in.

According to Henderson, DICE wanted a lot more time, but apparently didn’t get it. It says: “We wanted more time, but wanting something and getting something are two completely different things.” (via YouTube)

Battlefield 2042 would have needed more time, Battle Royale plans in the near future

What is the bottom line from all of this? Ultimately, both Henderson, DICE employees and fans come to a simple conclusion: Battlefield 2042 would have needed more time for development.

In the end it didn’t work out that way and the result is a release that reminds many of Battlefield 4 and is plagued by technical and content-related problems. MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus wrote before the release:

Battlefield 2042: November release isn’t a good idea

According to Henderson, however, the team is now working flat out to fix the game. It remains to be seen in the next few months whether this will work.

What’s next Henderson also gives an insight into the plans for Battlefield, which EA now wants to tackle or has discarded. For example, one would have deleted a Battlefield: Bad Company 3, worried that it would not sell well enough. Apparently this is just one of many projects that have been canceled.

The next battlefield is supposed to be a kind of hero shooter, as we know it from Overwatch, for example.
That should be based on the specialists of Battlefield 2042.
In addition, they are planning a “connected universe” that wants to expand the universe apart from Battlefield 2042. (via Gamespot.com)
For this purpose, the designer of the Master Chief and former Bungie employee Marcus Letho has been brought on board. (via IGN.com)
A Battle Royle offshoot is expected to come “in the near future”, but not in the next 6 months.

In addition, the head of Apex Legends has already been hired for the new direction of Battlefield 2042, while another DICE employee left the studio.

These things are not set in stone, however, as DICE is currently focusing on the fixes for Battlefield 2042. The first updates didn’t make fans happy either, because the biggest problems remained in the game.

You can also watch the complete, detailed report on YouTube or in the subreddit (via reddit) read the summary. Here is the video for you guys: