In an exclusive interview with IGN, Head of Respawn & Group GM for EA Studios Organization Vince Zampella sat down to talk about Battlefield's return to a modern setting while revealing its first concept art.
So I wasn’t there for 2042. I don’t know what the rationale was, but for me, it’s like the team tried something new.
The rationale was to make a 128 player battle royale ala PUBG or Fortnite. You know, shameless trend chasing!
It was supposed to basically be a spin off, non mainline BF game with the potential to be the next big thing while the next mainline game was being produced, but that only works if BF5 has staying power.
Which it did not.
And EA want MONEY, BIG MONEY ASAP!
So then BF2042 got massively reworked in a tiny amount of time to try to make it into a mainline series game by throwing a ton more developers at it than originally planned, ending up as a rushed, buggy, undercooked mess with tons of crap (half baked half reworked game modes) thrown at the wall to see what stuck.
That is why distinct armies were replaced with a cadre of mercenaries, as well as the entire 2042 timeframe setting in a world where nation states had basically collapsed already.
It is also why the maps are gigantic and seem like they were designed for a battle royale.
I’m guessing also their original plan was to have the much hyped dynamic weather systems serve a similar function as the the closing force fields or bubbles of death that battle royale’s have to force players into conflict and games to eventually end, but they couldn’t actually figure out how to make that work.
The rationale was to make a 128 player battle royale ala PUBG or Fortnite. You know, shameless trend chasing!
It was supposed to basically be a spin off, non mainline BF game with the potential to be the next big thing while the next mainline game was being produced, but that only works if BF5 has staying power.
Which it did not.
And EA want MONEY, BIG MONEY ASAP!
So then BF2042 got massively reworked in a tiny amount of time to try to make it into a mainline series game by throwing a ton more developers at it than originally planned, ending up as a rushed, buggy, undercooked mess with tons of crap (half baked half reworked game modes) thrown at the wall to see what stuck.
That is why distinct armies were replaced with a cadre of mercenaries, as well as the entire 2042 timeframe setting in a world where nation states had basically collapsed already.
It is also why the maps are gigantic and seem like they were designed for a battle royale.
I’m guessing also their original plan was to have the much hyped dynamic weather systems serve a similar function as the the closing force fields or bubbles of death that battle royale’s have to force players into conflict and games to eventually end, but they couldn’t actually figure out how to make that work.
Any questions Vince?